Google prepares the first orbital test of AI chips for Project Suncatcher.

The Project Suncatcher mission is scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare with Planet Labs. It will expose Tensor Processing Units to launch forces, radiation and extreme temperatures.

The research asks whether future space-based computing could use near-continuous sunlight while avoiding some terrestrial power constraints. The coming flight is an early hardware test, not a deployed orbital data center.