Planet Labs launched 20 satellites on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission, a launch format that carries multiple customer payloads to orbit on a single rocket. Among them was a prototype built to test Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs), custom chips designed for machine-learning workloads, in orbit. The mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Google and Planet Labs described the satellite as part of Project Suncatcher, a Google research effort examining whether space could support machine-learning infrastructure. Google confirmed contact with the prototype after launch and said it was operating as expected.

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

Planet Labs is an Earth data company that operates a fleet of Earth-observation satellites and partnered with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to build and test the satellite. By Friday, Planet Labs said it had established contact with four of the 20 satellites and had begun the commissioning process for them. The company expected to reach the remaining 16 soon after.

Project Suncatcher

Project Suncatcher is focused on whether large-scale computing systems could operate in space. Travis Beals, the project’s senior director, wrote in a blog post that the launch was the first step in what he called a long-term research moonshot.

The program is examining whether machine-learning infrastructure could function in orbit. At present, this type of computing takes place almost entirely on Earth in large data centers, which makes the prototype a rare direct test of AI hardware running outside them.

Over the next several weeks, Google plans to collect data on how its chips perform during spaceflight. The testing will include examining how the hardware responds to radiation and extreme temperature changes in orbit. Google also wants to assess how the physical stresses of launch and operation in space affect the chips.

The resulting data will help Google determine whether to expand the project. The company has not provided a timeline for any steps beyond the current research phase.

Alphabet’s SpaceX Stake

Alphabet has a financial connection to SpaceX beyond the launch partnership. It holds a stake in SpaceX worth more than $82 billion. SpaceX went public in June in what was described as a record-setting initial public offering.

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has also said it intends to build and launch orbital data centers. As a result, Google and SpaceX are each exploring whether computing hardware can operate in space rather than only on Earth, and Alphabet now holds a sizable financial stake in the company providing the ride to orbit.

The Planet Labs and Google test remains at an early stage. The companies are continuing initial satellite operations while Google gathers information from the TPU-equipped spacecraft. Near-term markers to watch include the commissioning of the remaining 16 satellites and the chip performance data Google expects to gather in the coming weeks, which the company says will inform whether Project Suncatcher expands beyond research.

The original report is available from CoinCentral: https://coincentral.com/google-and-planet-labs-launch-satellite-to-test-ai-chips-in-space/

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