Google has successfully run an artificial intelligence model aboard a satellite in orbit for the first time, as part of Project Suncatcher, which aims to build data centers in space. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the experimental satellite responded to a command sent from Earth with a haiku, describing it as the project’s “hello world” moment.
The team sent a command from Earth to the satellite, activated the onboard processing unit and asked the Gemma model to write a haiku about being in space. The response reached Earth while the satellite was passing over Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

“Starlight feeds my heart”
The poem read: “The blue sphere below, / Data streams in silent grace, / Starlight feeds my heart.” In subsequent tests, the team asked the model for humorous poems about space and data on the satellite’s systems.
The satellite was developed in collaboration with Planet and launched on October 1 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission. It is equipped with four Trillium-generation processing units.
Why space?
In the long term, Google aims to establish fleets of solar-powered satellites linked by laser. The company says the Sun emits energy equivalent to about 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity output, and that satellites in sun-synchronous orbit receive sunlight almost continuously.
The experimental satellite is testing the processors’ ability to withstand launch and radiation, as well as the difficulty of dissipating heat in a vacuum, and currently operates only for short periods. Google plans to launch two additional satellites in 2027 to test high-speed laser links between satellites.