# Google’s first satellite with a data-centre AI chip sends back a haiku written by Gemma 4

URL: https://ai-pulse.aglaganova.com/blog/googles-first-satellite-with-a-data-centre-ai-chip-sends-back-a-haiku-written-by-gemma-4
Published: 2026-11-04
Author: Roman Aglaganov, Full-stack developer
Category: Research
Region: Global
Tags: chips, energy

> Project Suncatcher’s prototype, built with Planet, has run an open Gemma 4 model on a Google TPU in orbit. It is a first step in testing whether AI computing could one day be powered by sunlight in space.

![Illustration: a small black satellite with long grey solar panels above the curved edge of a planet, with a thin red signal line running down to the ground](https://ai-pulse.aglaganova.com/api/media/file/suncatcher-1.png)

Google has received its first answer from an AI chip in space. On 30 October, the company said its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, launched on 1 October, had completed its first checks and run an AI model on a data-centre-class TPU, the same family of chips Google uses on the ground.

## The test

During a pass over a ground station, the team uploaded a prompt asking Gemma 4, Google’s open model, to write a haiku about being in space. The reply came back as the satellite passed over Svalbard in Norway: “Blue marble below / Data streams in silent grace / Starlight feeds my core.” The team then tried space-themed limericks and prompts that reported on the status of the satellite’s systems.

“Our chips have officially earned their space wings — an important achievement on the long road ahead for this cosmic moonshot,” wrote Travis Beals, a senior director at Google Research, in the announcement. SpaceNews reports that the spacecraft was built by Planet, the satellite imaging company.

## Why put AI chips in orbit

When Google announced Suncatcher in November 2025, it described a future in which fleets of solar-powered satellites carrying TPUs work together as a data centre. Its own design paper listed what stands in the way: keeping chips cool in a vacuum, linking satellites at tens of terabits per second, reliability in orbit, and launch costs, which it estimated would need to fall below about $200 per kilogram, possibly by the mid-2030s.

## What comes next

The next tests will check how the TPUs cope with heat and radiation in orbit. Google’s ground tests in 2025 found its Trillium chips “surprisingly radiation-hard”, but space is the real test. The next milestone is two linked satellites in 2027. A haiku proves the chip works up there; it says nothing yet about whether space can compete with data centres on Earth on cost.

## Sources

- [Google: We’ve received our first response from the Project Suncatcher prototype satellite](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/project-suncatcher-satellite-response/)
- [Google Research: Exploring a space-based, scalable AI infrastructure system design](https://research.google/blog/exploring-a-space-based-scalable-ai-infrastructure-system-design/)
- [SpaceNews: Google runs AI model on satellite chip, advancing orbital data center ambitions](https://spacenews.com/google-runs-ai-model-on-satellite-chip-advancing-orbital-data-center-ambitions/)