Illustrative orbit10× speed

This satellite almost never sees night.

On October 1, 2026, Google put its first Project Suncatcher satellite into orbit to test whether AI chips can run in space. Source

Day and night start at right now and run 10× fast.

Two panels, any day of the year

Put the ground panel in

Ground · Tromsø

Orbit · dawn-dusk

Same panel. Google says up to 8x the power. Source

Ground curve modeled, clear sky, flat panel. Bars show energy relative to the orbital panel.

Try Tromsø in December.

Design the orbit

Time in sunlight

100%

One orbit takes

98 min

full sun24 h
dark · shadowPanel output over 24 hours

This is why Google wants to fly here.

Modeled circular orbit, cylindrical Earth shadow. Paper

Inside the satellite

The Project Suncatcher prototype satellite with its four black solar wings unfolded, in a Planet cleanroom
The prototype at Planet's facility in San Francisco before launch. Photo: Planet Labs PBC.
Engineers in cleanroom suits loading the satellite into a thermal vacuum chamber
Tested in a thermal vacuum chamber that simulates space. Photo: Google.

What comes next

Oct 1, 2026: the prototype launches on SpaceX's Transporter-18. Video: Google. Source

2027 · planned

Two satellites, linked by laser

Google plans to test the laser link with two satellites in 2027. Source
1 km← direction of travel · Earth below

Long-term vision · from Google's paper

A cluster flying in tight formation

81
satellites in the illustrative cluster
1 km
cluster radius
100–200 m
between neighbors, shifting each orbit
650 km
mean cluster altitude
Simplified from the paper's Figure 2: one possible planar layout. Each satellite would carry dozens of TPUs and talk to its neighbors by laser. Paper

2027: two satellites, linked by laser. After that: a moonshot.

Power from the Sun, above the clouds

Google's first Project Suncatcher satellite, built with Planet, is in orbit and operating as expected. It carries Trillium TPUs to find out whether AI chips can work in space, where a panel can catch near-constant sunlight. Google calls it a moonshot; the next step is two satellites linked by laser in 2027.

MTS × Built with Lovable