Google has sent its custom AI chips into orbit for the first time, launching a prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher on October 1.

The refrigerator-sized satellite, built with Planet Labs, launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Planet confirmed it has made contact with the spacecraft and begun commissioning.

The satellite carries four of Google’s Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, the same chips the company uses in its data centres on Earth. The mission will test whether the chips can survive launch stress, radiation and the temperature swings of low Earth orbit.

The test is deliberately narrow. The chips will run AI models in short bursts of about 15 minutes, then power down to cool, because overheating is a risk in space.

“This first launch is about seeing what works, identifying points of failure, and applying those findings to future missions,” said Travis Beals, Google’s senior director of paradigms of intelligence.

Google plans a two-satellite launch in 2027 to test high-bandwidth laser links between spacecraft.