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# Google's first data center satellite is online, and Gemma 4 wrote a haiku from orbit
- URL: https://globalfeed.ai/en/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-gemma-4-wrote-a-haiku-from-orbit/
- Published: 2026-10-31T22:11:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-31T22:11:57.000Z
- Description: The prototype satellite from Google's Suncatcher project is now talking to Earth. In the first prompt sent to its four TPUs, the open model Gemma 4 wrote a haiku about space. Next come tests of how the chips handle heat and radiation.
- Author: GlobalFeed Editor
- Tags: Google, Suncatcher, Gemma 4, space, data centers, open models, x-Google, x-GoogleDeepMind, dil-en, elle

The prototype satellite from Suncatcher, Google's project to build data centers in space, is up and working. [According to TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-writing-poetry/?ref=globalfeed.ai), the satellite launched on October 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 alongside more than 100 other spacecraft and is now communicating with the ground after about three weeks of commissioning. Engineers sent the first prompt this week. They asked Gemma 4, the Google DeepMind model loaded on board, to write a haiku about being in space. The answer: *Blue marble below / Data streams in silent grace / Starlight feeds my core.*

## What is on board

The satellite carries four Google Tensor Processing Units and generates up to 1 kW of electricity. The power limit means only one TPU can run at a time, for about 20 minutes, which complicates communication with the ground. According to an NPR correction, this prototype uses batteries and sits in a standard orbit, while a constantly sunlit orbit without batteries is planned for later satellites. Beyond the haiku, Google tested the model by asking for a report on orbital conditions around the spacecraft. A spokesperson said it is operating normally.

## The real test

The coming test campaign will measure how the chips behave under thermal stress and space radiation. Shedding heat in space is hard, and radiation can flip bits in memory. Such errors can corrupt data without triggering normal monitoring tools. Google has tested its TPUs in particle accelerators on Earth, and those tests suggested radiation matters little for running a model and more for training one. Now that result has to hold up in real conditions.

## What comes next

If the tests go well, Google plans to launch two more satellites with advanced chips in 2027\. They will generate more power and demonstrate optical links between satellites. Suncatcher stands out for aiming at fast links among closely flying satellites so they can share large workloads. The economics are still far off. The company is designing infrastructure for the 2030s, and it needs a fully and rapidly reusable Starship. In a peer-reviewed analysis, project researchers estimated that SpaceX would need to fly Starship 1,800 times to match the cost declines of its earlier vehicles.

That makes an open model running in orbit a symbolic step. Gemma 4's files are publicly available under Apache 2.0\. For now, the satellite is an experiment and far from a working data center. Still, as resistance to data centers grows on the ground, the idea of solving AI's energy and cooling problems in space has reached its first real test.

Sources: [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-writing-poetry/?ref=globalfeed.ai), [NPR / GPB](https://www.gpb.org/node/1549336?ref=globalfeed.ai)