Google AI model runs on satellite, replies from orbit
Under Project Suncatcher, a Gemma 4 model on a Google TPU answered from orbit on 30 October after an 1 October SpaceX launch, sending a short poem via a pass over Svalbard.
Google said an experimental satellite processed an AI request in orbit and returned the answer to Earth on 30 October.
The onboard Gemma 4 model, running on a data centre-class TPU, wrote a three-line poem about being in space during a pass over Svalbard, Norway.
The satellite launched on 1 October on a SpaceX rocket and had been under test for weeks.
Project Suncatcher is studying whether solar-powered satellites could one day host AI computing away from Earth data centres.
Google plans longer radiation and temperature trials, with a 2027 test of two linked satellites; it has not announced commercial space AI services.