Google sends four Trillium TPUs to orbit on October 1 as the first hardware test for Project Suncatcher
Google Blog (corroborated by Quartz, DatacenterDynamics) / Hacker News (197pts, 398 comments)·high signal
Google says its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, built with Planet, will fly on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg. It carries four Trillium TPUs to measure launch vibration, radiation and thermal swings in low Earth orbit. Proton tests at UC Davis's Crocker Nuclear Laboratory showed the chips tolerate more than a five-year mission's ionizing dose, and a two-satellite laser-link test is planned for 2027. It is still a research probe, not a data center, but it is the first flight hardware behind the orbital-compute claims.