Google hitches a ride aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX; sends TPUs to space; CEO Sundar Pichai says: Well, we are going to find …
Google’s first satellite for the project is set for launch
He further revealed that TPUs will be sent in space onboard the upcoming Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX was developed in partnership with Planet. Sundar Pichai first discussed the ambitious Project Suncatcher in 2025. On October 1, the satellite from the San Francisco lab, which Google has named MVP, is set to take the first step toward the company’s goal. The satellite will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, California, before being launched into orbit.
Google announced that its Project Suncatcher is scheduled to embark on its first test in orbit, launching a prototype satellite to evaluate how Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) perform in space. One example of this is Project Suncatcher two weeks ago, where we announced we’re gonna build data centers in space.
“Project Suncatcher is hitching a ride aboard @SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission, testing a prototype satellite built in partnership with @planet,” Pichai wrote adding “One small step for TPUs. …”. Sharing a post on X, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote: “Can our TPUs survive and operate in space? Well, we’re going to find out”. It is a long-term, research moonshot exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure. “I’m constantly thinking in that time frame. Obviously, it’s a moonshot. Pichai emphasised that Google’s strategy involves constantly thinking on a long time frame and working backward from monumental goals. For Project Suncatcher, the justification lies in forecasting the processing demands of the next generation of AI.
Some of it looks crazy today,” he said in a Release Notes podcast this week.