Google and Planet Labs Launch Satellite to Test AI Chips in Space

TLDR

• Planet Labs launched 20 satellites on Friday, including one built to test Google’s tensor processing units in orbit.
• The satellites launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
• The project is called Project Suncatcher, a Google research effort looking into space-based machine learning infrastructure.
• Google confirmed contact with its prototype satellite and said it is operating as expected.
• Alphabet holds a stake worth more than $82 billion in SpaceX, which went public in June.

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Planet Labs sent 20 satellites into orbit on Friday. One of them was built specifically to test Google’s custom computer chips, known as tensor processing units, in space.

Google $GOOGL and Planet Labs $PL today successfully launched a prototype satellite in space with a Google TPU

This is the first time we have put AI compute in space

The prototype was taken to space on a SpaceX $SPCX rocket
pic.twitter.com/p8TkXeocVJ

— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) October 2, 2026

The satellite launched as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission. It lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Planet Labs is an Earth data company. It partnered with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to build and test this satellite.

By Friday, Planet Labs said it had made contact with four of the 20 satellites. The company began the commissioning process on those four and expected to reach the remaining 16 soon after.

The Google Project Behind the Launch

Google calls this effort Project Suncatcher. It is a research program looking at whether space could someday support large scale computing systems.

Travis Beals leads the project as senior director. He wrote in a blog post that the launch marks the first step in what he called a long term research moonshot.

The idea is to figure out if machine learning infrastructure could work in orbit. Right now, that kind of computing happens almost entirely on the ground in large data centers.

Google confirmed its team made contact with the satellite after launch. The company said it is operating as expected so far.

Over the next several weeks, Google plans to gather data on how its chips handle spaceflight. That includes testing how the hardware reacts to radiation and extreme temperature changes in orbit.

The company wants to learn how physical stress from launch and operation in space affects the chips. This data will help Google decide whether to expand the idea further.

Alphabet’s Stake in SpaceX

Alphabet has a financial connection to SpaceX beyond this single launch. The company holds a stake in SpaceX worth more than 82 billion dollars.

SpaceX went public in June. That listing was described as a record setting initial public offering.

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has its own plans tied to this trend. The company has said it intends to build and launch orbital data centers of its own.

That means both companies are now exploring the same general idea. Each is looking at whether computing hardware can function in space rather than only on Earth.

For now, the test remains in an early stage. Planet Labs and Google are still confirming contact with the satellites and beginning initial operations.

Google said more information will come as it collects data from the TPU satellite over the coming weeks. The company has not given a timeline for any further steps beyond this research phase.