Last year, Google announced Project Suncatcher with the aim of building a data center in space. Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched the first Project Suncatcher satellite into orbit during the Transporter-18 mission using a Falcon 9 rocket.
Google stated that this marks the first step in a long-term research effort to explore whether space can host scalable machine learning infrastructure in the future. The initial satellite is equipped with four TPU chips and collects data while in orbit to monitor the physical stresses of spaceflight, radiation levels, and extreme temperatures.
Google plans to launch two satellites by 2027. At an altitude of approximately 650 km above Earth's surface, a space-based AI data center can draw electricity directly from the sun. Solar panel energy generation efficiency is eight times higher in space; theoretically, this allows for the generation of an unlimited power supply.
Google also projects that this initiative could be fully realized by the mid-2030s, once the cost of launching satellites into orbit drops to as low as $200 per kilogram. Should Project Suncatcher proceed, Google would be following in the footsteps of Starcloud—a startup in the NVIDIA Inception program—and China, both of which are pursuing similar endeavors.
