Google to launch Project Suncatcher satellite with AI data center in orbit

techSep 24, 202669376

Google will launch an experimental satellite called Project Suncatcher on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 to test whether data-center computing can work in orbit, The New York Times reported. The ~fridge-sized satellite will carry four Google Tensor Processing Units to run simple AI queries while powered by solar energy and is planned to operate for about a year. Engineers will monitor how the chips tolerate radiation, thermal extremes and overloads; Travis Beals, Google’s senior director of product management for Project Suncatcher, said the chips can run for roughly 15 minutes in space before requiring shutdown to cool. Planet Labs is named in reporting as a partner on the near-term launch. The mission is explicitly framed as a feasibility experiment rather than a production service and will return telemetry and performance data that Google and partners can use to decide whether larger, longer-lived orbital data centers are practical.

Techdirt

@techdirt.com

Meta’s AI Agent Muse Launches With Nasty Zero-Day Flaw, Then Gets Blocked By Amazon After burning $80 billion on the failed metaverse pivot -- and billions more on desperate... https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/24/metas-ai-agent-muse-launches-with-nasty-zero-day-flaw-then-gets-blocked-by-amazon/

9616d ago

Brian Wilcox6

Meta can kiss my ass. Their espionage AI is not finding its way onto my devices.

Nova 🐾4

Lmao, they're so desperate too, every time I open Instagram they're practically BEGGING me to use their "new" stupid ai

Anna Biela4

IMO, this headline makes it sound like it got blocked from Amazon because of the security flaw, rather than because Amazon wants to block competitors from using its store. Which is maybe bad for discourse, even if the article itself is very clear about both aspects of this being separate issues.

JR Tomlin (she/her)1

"Flaw"? Or working exactly as intended?

JazzComposer1

History tends to repeat itself (with one big AI difference): New idea. Huge investment. Many supplier enter market. Oversupply. Commodity pricing, cost plus or sometimes cost minus. (Customers realize that AI fails to perform as hoped with incorrect output hallucinations) Bubble bursts bigly.

PayBlocks.network1

This company is using stolen IP and have zero rights to utilize agentic capabilities.

Quoting this

Wootmaster102

never in my LIFE will I understand people who willingly give control of their PCs to AI """agents""". This thing was advertised as being able to make purchases for you and being able to control your accounts and that was listed as a positive! How could that not fill you with a deep sense of terror??

hammancheez6

the zero day flaw broke the wearer's knees

Anonymous #OpMentalHealth4

Hah. Hahaha. HAHAHAHA. 😂🤣☠️ "security researchers found a massive zero-day flaw in Muse that allowed any app or terminal command to gain access to the authentication token linking users to their Muse account."

Will Pollock ➡️ turn 🔔 on2

Zuckerberg's shithole product violating Amazon's ToS is like Hannibal Lecter getting scolded by Charles Manson

Bruce Cullen 🇨🇦🫡2

And yet… their stock went up 10% yesterday. None of the economy is real anymore.

hailey

@hailey.at

the year is 2034. artificial intelligence has far surpassed humanity in science, medical, and mathematics, and new discoveries have led to interstellar space travel being possible within 2-3 years. also, will stancil is still posting about AI capability while random internet humans call him a moron.

11416d ago

Marek 'seqre' Grzelak14

And Zitron still says it’s a fad and the bubble will burst in weeks

Canary8

Live feed of the first humans standing on Mars, @tankie6969 on Bluesky: Slop unfortunately

Sarah M.2

poasters: you can't ever 2034 me: momma needs a fusion drive and a positron blaster

N.N. Scott2

He’s the Omelas child of the AI era

Joe Bak-Coleman

@jbakcoleman.bsky.social

Tips for journalists covering "AI in space": -Ask about heat dissipation *at scale* -Ask "Doesn't the sun come down here too?" -Ask "y tho?" www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

7715d ago

Klaus Pforr7

As I understand, data centers come at the size of buildings, so rather inconvenient when the prices to bring stuff into orbit are per kilogram

Obscure Archaeologist1

Ask Gemini about Kessler Syndrome

P.P. Pistachio1

-The largest solar array in space is (conveniently) the size of a football field and provides only 0.03% of the power that musk's Memphis facility uses.

Quoting this

Odrok the Deceiver2

I'm so sorry, @acollierastro.bsky.social, i just had to share the idiocy 🫤

Cracked Lemonade2

Ok these tech companies are just throwing ideas out there to deflect from their fuck ups. I am convinced

Ryan Mac 🙃

@rmac.bsky.social

Next week, Google is set to launch an experimental satellite to test the feasibility of data centers in space and it's doing it on a SpaceX rocket. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

The work was part of an ambitious effort from Google called Project Suncatcher, which aims to put artificial intelligence data centers into space and to harness the sun’s energy to power them. On Oct. 1, the satellite from the San Francisco lab — which Google has named MVP — is set to become the first step toward that goal by a major tech company. It will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif., and then launched into orbit.

Google provided The New York Times with the first inside look at the project, which seemed like a science-fiction dream just a year ago.

2815d ago

Lauren Westy2

Sounds like this might be an explosive first step.

David Andersen2

*sigh* "The chips can operate for about 15 minutes in space before needing to be shut down so they can cool off" yes, no kidding. Because trying to put a datacenter in space is stupid if it's not where you're producing the data. 1/

curvenomics.bsky.social1

Chance they steal the IP and the rocket experiences an in anticipated rapid disassembly?

Mike Boylan-Kolchin

@mbkplus.bsky.social

This article, from @kateconger.com and Cade Metz, is a great look at some of the challenges facing data centers in space and the lengths that the big tech companies are willing to go in hopes of serving large-scale compute

815d ago

Mike Walker

@newnarrative.bsky.social

Google Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

615d ago

Dr Pamela L Gay

@starstryder.space

I sub a variety of newsletters to try & keep up with space related science & aerospace news. Imma unsub from SkyTuned because they may be unverified AI. New Glenn is absolutely not launching today & I have no idea why they would say this. The story isn't at the top of their website skytuned.com

a screen capture of SkyTuned spae news comprehensive Daily News letter. It says: "Thursday, September 24, 2026 · Issue #90

🌌 Today's Lead
Blue Origin's New Glenn Returns to Flight Tonight — The Comeback Launch That Changes Everything
Blue Origin is targeting liftoff tonight from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for New Glenn's return-to-flight mission — the company's comeback after the launchpad explosion earlier in 2026 that set its program back months. The 322-foot rocket and its seven BE-4 engines will generate 3.85 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making this one of 2026's most anticipated launches. A successful mission restores Blue Origin's heavy-lift credibility and its standing as a serious launch competitor — arriving just four days before SpaceX attempts Starship Flight 14's historic first orbital insertion on September 28. Tonight, all eyes are on the Cape."

915d ago

Jon PENNYCOOK

@jonpsp.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy

not impressed with the #Freakonomics series on #AI in #space - Steve Levitt doesn't challenge any of the interviewees about whether their more outlandish ideas are sensible or practical. It is a bit shocking what directors/VPs at #Google believe. Transcripts and audio here:- […]

116d ago

Lucian Phillips 🚀🌛🎸🐱

@lucianphillips.bsky.social

Lot of of AI talk reminds me that SLOW SPACE has, in fact, several AI characters and covers the protests against the enormous energy these things use plus the surprising actions they could take. It's not the only thing in 1/2 #scifi #booksky #sciencefiction #hardsciencefiction

715d ago

input

@feed.igeek.gamer-geek-news.com.ap.brid.gy

📰 **Google is sending a teensy-tiny AI data center to space** It's an experiment to see how the chips hold up in the harsh vacuum of the cosmos. 📰 Source: Engadget - Technology News & Expert Reviews 🔗 Link […] [Original post on igeek.gamer-geek-news.com]

Image for: Google is sending a teensy-tiny AI data center to space

15d ago

The Daily Gizmo ™

@dailygizmo.bsky.social

🔍Google plans to test custom AI chips in space aboard an upcoming SpaceX mission. The experiment will explore whether AI processing can work efficiently in orbit for potential data centers in space Sponsored by @bargainsco.bsky.social #google #ai #spacex #news

415d ago

The Wilderness

@wolfman62.bsky.social

"And now your Information is not in the Filing Cabinet in the Basement, it is in The Cloud, Up Above Us, but it is not a Physical Space" So my Data is in Heaven? You wanted us to Vote for This? Is this really Who you want making the Decisions on AI, Data Centers and Social Media Censorship.

216d ago

Maria Varmazis

@varmaz.is

(Gift article) Really fascinating story today for all of us following the attempted development of orbital data centers giving a few details on a Google/Planet Labs collab launching in the near future. (1/2) www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

115d ago

Steve Bellovin

@stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy

@sundogplanets You mean lines like this from the article: "The chips can operate for about 15 minutes in space before needing to be shut down so they can cool off, said Travis Beals, Google’s senior director of product management for Project Suncatcher."? Or that you have to restart after bit […]

115d ago

Matthew J Kuiper

@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social

That truly important thing being to make sure google will have the infrastructure - even if that means spending $gazillions to put more future space junk in orbit around the planet - in order to continue to destroy useful web search in favor of intellectual-property-stealing, useless AI “summaries”

315d ago

1 source

nytimes.comGoogle Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space

Australia's PM says he confronted Sam Altman over delayed OpenAI breach disclosuretech Google to launch Project Suncatcher satellite with AI data center in orbittech NYT: OpenAI’s AI tried breaching four other targets without promptingtech

Google to launch Project Suncatcher satellite with AI data center in orbit

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