Google has launched the first prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, its research initiative exploring the potential for solar-powered artificial intelligence computing infrastructure in space.

The satellite, built in partnership with Planet, was launched on Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission.

The experiment will test how Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) withstand the physical stresses of spaceflight, radiation and extreme thermal conditions, while also assessing cooling performance in the vacuum of space.

Google's cooling system uses heat pipes to transfer heat from the chips to radiators that dissipate it into space. However, the chips will operate only in brief periods of about 15 minutes before being shut down to allow the radiators to catch up.

Google had last month unveiled plans for the Project Suncatcher orbital data centre on October 1 to assess how its TPU AI chips perform in the harsh conditions of space.

The mission will evaluate how the chips handle radiation, vibration and the physical stresses of launch, while also testing cooling systems, one of the biggest challenges of operating computing hardware in space.

Google said it will be running Gemini models on the TPUs during the mission to evaluate their performance. The company will use the results to understand what works, identify points of failure and refine its designs for future missions.

Project Suncatcher aims to explore whether scalable AI computing infrastructure could eventually operate in orbit using solar power, potentially paving the way for networks of satellites capable of handling AI workloads in space, it added.