Prithvi on the IMAGIN-e payload, International Space Station

Ran inference on a prepared test set in orbit, under command from the ground, and returned outputs matching those obtained on Earth.

L2 Launched: own technical account. Rests on c6.
R2 Ran: own technical account. Rests on c1, c2.

Operator	Thales Alenia Space (the payload)
Developer	Adelaide University, with ESA Φ-lab, Thales Alenia Space and the SmartSat CRC
Host	IMAGIN-e, on the station's Bartolomeo platform
Where	space station
Class	perception
Hardware	an ARM-based compute module with no hardware accelerator
Model or software	A compressed variant of the NASA and IBM Prithvi geospatial foundation model
Launched	21 Mar 2024
Ran	before 1 December 2025; no date given

What was said, and by whom

“We further demonstrate reliable on-orbit inference with the IMAGIN-e payload aboard the International Space Station.”

Du et al., the research team: the experimenter. First On-Orbit Demonstration of a Geospatial Foundation Model, arXiv (preprint by the demonstration's team). Published 1 Dec 2025 (submission date on the page). Read 4 Oct 2026, abstract page in full.
“Inference was executed onboard the compute module under ground command, with intermediate outputs and runtime logs downlinked for comparison with on-ground baselines.”

Du et al., the research team: the experimenter. First On-Orbit Demonstration of a Geospatial Foundation Model (full text), arXiv (preprint by the demonstration's team). Published 1 Dec 2025 (submission date on the abstract page). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: about 25 excerpts of 78,000 characters.
“direct on-orbit testing was not possible due to a technical anomaly affecting the EO payload interface”

Du et al., the research team: the experimenter. First On-Orbit Demonstration of a Geospatial Foundation Model (full text), arXiv (preprint by the demonstration's team). Published 1 Dec 2025 (submission date on the abstract page). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: about 25 excerpts of 78,000 characters.
“this was not possible due to a power fault in the imaging system”

Du et al., the research team: the experimenter. First On-Orbit Demonstration of a Geospatial Foundation Model (full text), arXiv (preprint by the demonstration's team). Published 1 Dec 2025 (submission date on the abstract page). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: about 25 excerpts of 78,000 characters.
“has successfully uploaded and demonstrated NASA and IBM's open-source Prithvi Geospatial artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model aboard two in-orbit platforms, making it the first geospatial foundation model to be deployed in orbit”

NASA, which made the model with IBM: maker of the model. NASA's Prithvi Becomes First AI Geospatial Foundation Model In Orbit, NASA Science. Published 7 May 2026 (page metadata; updated 13 May 2026). Read 4 Oct 2026, in full.
“The IMAGIN-e payload was launched on 21 March 2024 aboard a SpaceX cargo resupply mission”

Du et al., the research team: the experimenter. First On-Orbit Demonstration of a Geospatial Foundation Model (full text), arXiv (preprint by the demonstration's team). Published 1 Dec 2025 (submission date on the abstract page). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: about 25 excerpts of 78,000 characters.

Where sources disagree

How many platforms. NASA's article of May 2026 says the model was demonstrated aboard two in-orbit platforms, the Kanyini satellite and IMAGIN-e. The team's own preprint of December 2025 says direct testing in orbit on Kanyini was not possible, and that the model ran there on an engineering model on the ground. Either the Kanyini run happened later and is reported nowhere read here, or the article counts ground hardware as an orbiting platform. Unresolved; only the imagin-e run is recorded.
The run in orbit used a prepared test set, not images newly taken: the preprint says a power fault in the imaging system prevented that. Noted.

Claims to a first

First geospatial foundation model in orbit: contested. Xinhua reports an 8-billion-parameter remote sensing model in use on the Three-Body constellation in November 2025; whether that is a geospatial foundation model is a matter of definition. Separately, the team's own preprint reports an in-orbit run on one platform, not the two that NASA's article names.

Notes

The preprint thanks Thales Alenia Space for evidence of the demonstration. Thales Alenia Space runs the payload and is among the authors' institutions, so this is not counted as independent.

Changed

Run raised from R1 to R2 after the preprint was read, and narrowed from two platforms to one.

This record as data