Google schedules first in-orbit Project Suncatcher TPU test

Google has announced that Project Suncatcher will launch its first test in orbit, sending a prototype satellite to evaluate how its Tensor Processing Units perform in space.

• The initial mission is aboard the upcoming Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX, and it was developed in partnership with Planet; the goal is to collect in-orbit data on TPU performance under spaceflight stress, radiation, and thermal extremes.
• Google says the effort is a long-term research moonshot for scalable machine learning infrastructure in low Earth orbit; it has already conducted vibration testing, proton beam testing at UC Davis’s Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, and thermal vacuum chamber tests, with a 2027 milestone for testing satellite-to-satellite laser links.