Reliability in Orbit: Google’s Greatest Space AI Challenge?

Google’s “Project Suncatcher” plan is filled with ambitious goals, but a single “cautionary note” from the company may highlight the biggest challenge of all: “on-orbit system reliability.” In space, the blue screen of death is a catastrophic, multi-million-dollar failure.
On Earth, if a server crashes, a technician can simply go and fix it. At 400 miles altitude, in a fast-moving satellite, repairs are virtually impossible. This means Google’s orbital datacenters, powered by TPUs and connected by lasers, must work flawlessly for their entire operational life.
This is a monumental engineering feat. The systems must withstand the G-forces and vibrations of a rocket launch, then operate for years in the harsh environment of space, enduring extreme temperature swings and constant bombardment from radiation, which can fry electronics.
This reliability challenge compounds the other major hurdles Google mentioned, suchas “thermal management” and “high-bandwidth ground communications.” Any one of these systems failing—the cooling, the data link, or the processor itself—would render the entire satellite a piece of expensive space junk.
While competitors like Starcloud and Musk face the same problem, Google’s 2027 prototype launch will be a crucial first test of this reliability. Before space can become the “best place to scale AI,” it must first become a reliable place to run it.