Google to Launch AI Chip Satellite for Project Suncatcher Aboard SpaceX Rocket

The satellite, called MVP, is about the size of a refrigerator. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry it to orbit as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with other payloads. Google did not build the spacecraft from scratch; it integrated its chips into a satellite that Planet Labs had already built. That approach helped Google accelerate its original plan to launch two custom-built satellites in 2027.

Low Earth orbit could generate up to eight times more solar power than equivalent panels on Earth's surface, according to the report. Before scaling any further, Google is testing whether AI hardware can survive the launch and repeated exposure to space.

During a rocket launch, spacecraft experience vibration and acceleration reaching up to ten times normal gravity, while individual chip components can face forces between 50 and 100 times normal gravity during ascent. Engineers shook the satellite along three axes to simulate those conditions. The vibration test confirmed the hardware withstood the simulated launch forces without structural or functional failure.

"Tests like this rarely go as planned, so we were pleasantly surprised that the hardware held up to the force," said Travis Beals, senior director of Paradigms of Intelligence at Google.

Radiation exposure was another concern. Google tested its Trillium TPUs inside a proton beam facility at UC Davis. The tests showed the chips survived radiation doses exceeding what a five-year orbital mission would typically deliver.

Cooling remains the biggest unresolved engineering challenge. Space offers no airflow to dissipate heat as Earth's atmosphere does. Google's current design relies on thermal interface material that connects the chips to aluminum and copper heat pipes leading outward. Those components funnel heat toward radiators that project it into the surrounding vacuum.

Because of that limitation, the TPUs will run continuously for only about 15 minutes before requiring a shutdown period. After each 15-minute session, the chips must pause completely while the radiator system catches up on cooling.

Future satellite designs are expected to carry dozens of TPU chips each, communicating across the constellation through precise high-speed laser connections. Google plans to test two satellites communicating this way sometime in 2027, alongside its previously planned custom satellite launches.