California · Google · SpaceX · TechCrunch AI
Google thinks SpaceX’s Starship has to launch 1,800 times before space data centers get off the ground
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Google’s prototype of its orbital compute satellite took off today onboard a SpaceX rocket launched from California, the first time the tech giant has sent one of its advanced chips into space.
Key facts
- Arguing that Elon Musk’s rocket builders have achieved a price-reducing “learning curve” of about 20% a year since they launched the Falcon 1 rocket, the authors believe it’s reasonable to expect
- Based on the amount of payload launched by the Falcon 9, they think a similar cost-reduction trajectory will require Starship to fly 370,000 tons of payload into orbit
- Once commissioned, the satellite will fire up its TPU in 15-minute bursts to avoid straining the satellite’s power and thermal management systems
- Suncatcher isn’t the only space AI payload on this SpaceX rocket, which is launching more than 100 different payloads, including missions from Satlyt and Cowboy Space Company
Summary
Built by Planet Labs, the satellite will prove that a Google Tensor Processing Unit, its competitor to Nvidia’s GPUs, can function in space. “We’ve done testing on the ground, but you know, there’s no test that’s completely as good as the real thing,” said Travis Beals, the Google executive managing Project Suncatcher, the tech giant’s plan to develop large-scale compute clusters in orbit around the Earth. Once commissioned, the satellite will fire up its TPU in 15-minute bursts to avoid straining the satellite’s power and thermal management systems. Suncatcher isn’t the only space AI payload on this SpaceX rocket, which is launching more than 100 different payloads, including missions from Satlyt and Cowboy Space Company.