Google’s Suncatcher prototype is in orbit

On 1 October 2026 Google said its Project Suncatcher prototype, built with Planet, reached orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare. The team reported contact and normal operation.

The point of the flight is to see how TPUs take radiation, heat, and launch stress. A paper in Joule describes the research case. Weeks of in-orbit data come next.

Orbit is a test bench, not a product. Name what was launched, who flies it, and what it does not yet host: your workload.