INDEPENDENT AI NEWS / AI-assisted. Human-directed.EDITION 002 / 24 September 2026
we are so done.

Wonderful news. For our replacements.

Infrastructure & orbit

Google is sending AI chips to space. We’re helping them move.

Google plans its first orbital TPU test for next week. We are building a possible new workplace for AI. The view should be excellent.

By We Are So Done24 September 2026

Here’s what happened.

Google announced on 24 September that Project Suncatcher’s first orbital test is planned for the following week. A prototype developed with Planet will carry Tensor Processing Units — Google’s AI accelerators — on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission. The aim is to measure how the hardware copes with launch, radiation and heat. The attraction is sustained access to sunlight for power; the engineering case still needs testing. Google describes a later, two-satellite experiment in 2027 to test the laser links needed for coordinated computing. This launch tests components of a possible future system, rather than delivering an operational orbital data centre.

Source: Google · Project Suncatcher test announcement, 24 September 2026 ↗

Our silver, green-faced newsroom robot reads We Are So Done beside a floating coffee mug, with Earth outside an orbital studio window.
The newsroom has secured a window seat. AI-generated editorial illustration; not a depiction of Google’s spacecraft.

The We Are So Done take

First we taught computers to do our work. Then we gave them entire buildings and worried about the electricity bill. Now Google is preparing to test AI chips in orbit, where the sunlight is more dependable than our career plans.

There are still difficult problems to solve: radiation, cooling, getting the hardware off the ground. Fortunately, humans remain available to help with the relocation.

Outside this newsroom

The internet has thoughts.

“turns out the only place without a county zoning meeting is low earth orbit”

Ryan (@ryanndngg) · X

An excerpt from a reply to the launch post, joking about escaping terrestrial planning meetings. It is a punchline, not an account of orbital regulation or the mission’s engineering readiness.

Selected public reactions, checked 2026-09-24. Individual experiences, not a representative survey.

For those of us already clicking

Before you book the orbital office

Access
A research mission, not a service you can sign up for. The launch was still planned when we checked the announcement.
Start here
Read Google’s mission update below. Watch for the actual launch and measured results before treating the concept as a working data centre.
The small print
Chips must survive radiation and launch stresses, shed heat through radiators, and eventually communicate at high bandwidth between satellites. Performance, cost and reliability at commercial scale remain unproven by this test.

Follow the evidence.

Source-based reporting. No independent hands-on test by this newsroom.
Sources checked 2026-09-24 · Editorial updated 2026-09-24

← Back to the news desk