SPACE COMMUNICATIONS

INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY

Following the successful launch in January 2026, the Canadian company offers the first commercial space data relay service available, now supporting a diverse customer set across commercial and government markets. The company’ s constellation is enabling real-time, on-demand space operations through resilient connectivity, onboard computing and hosted payloads.

The move into commercial operations marks a significant stage in Kepler’ s development of communications infrastructure designed to accelerate the movement of data between spacecraft and Earth. The network is intended to give customers faster access to information generated by missions operating in orbit.

Designed around an IP-based architecture with optical intersatellite links and distributed edge computing, Kepler’ s nextgeneration constellation allows customers to move, process and access mission data with greater speed and flexibility.

“ Reaching commercial operations at scale is a defining milestone for Kepler,” said Mina Mitry, CEO and Co-Founder, Kepler.“ Over the past several years, we’ ve demonstrated what’ s possible with optical networking in space. Now, we’ re delivering on real-time mission needs while laying the foundation for the next generation of space operations.”

Kepler supports missions spanning Earth observation, space domain awareness, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance( ISR), defence and other real-time use cases.

Customers can securely transmit, process and distribute data across the network before it reaches Earth, enabling AI-enabled mission workflows, reducing latency and supporting increasingly autonomous space operations. This capability is designed to allow mission operators to make greater use of data while spacecraft remain in orbit rather than relying solely on conventional groundbased processing.

The constellation also enables hosted payload customers to deploy sensors and applications on proven infrastructure with integrated connectivity and onboard compute.

The company has proven its optical capabilities across a range of SDA-compatible operational scenarios, including space-to-space links, cross-plane optical tracking and spaceto-ground links with more than 10 optical ground stations across multiple continents.

Kepler also completed the world’ s first commercial demonstration of space-to-air optical data relay from low Earth orbit. The demonstration added another operational scenario to the company’ s optical communications capabilities and its development of infrastructure supporting increasingly connected space missions.

In 2028, Kepler will expand its global optical data relay network with its next tranche of spacecraft across multiple launches, including a dedicated launch with Rocket Lab, to support growing customer demand.

The additional spacecraft are intended to extend the reach and capabilities of the network as customers seek faster and more resilient ways of transmitting mission information.

The expanded constellation will increase network capacity, resilience and performance, with advanced optical terminals supporting data rates up to 100 Gbps and future missions including the European Space Agency’ s HydRON program.

The planned expansion will further develop Kepler’ s optical infrastructure as demand grows for real-time connectivity, onboard processing and high-capacity communications supporting commercial, government and increasingly autonomous space operations worldwide. • www. intelligentcio. com

INTELLIGENT CIO NORTH AMERICA

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