Kepler

Kepler Communications is a private satellite telecommunications company that builds, launches and operates a network of satellites to provide in-space connectivity. The company develops next-generation satellite communications technologies and delivers global satellite data backhaul services for wideband and IoT applications. The company’s stated mission is to deliver affordable network connectivity across the globe via a growing network of small satellites.

The company’s infrastructure is aimed to connect launch vehicles, space stations, habitats, and other satellites. Kepler primarily serves the maritime, natural resources, research and exploration, defense, and shipping and logistics industries.

The company is based in Toronto, Ontario in Canada and was established in 2015. The company has successfully launched two 3U CubeSat technology demonstration satellites, the KIPP (Kepler-1), launched in January 2018 and the CASE (Kepler-2), launched in November 2018.

Both satellites are in Sun-Synchronous polar orbits. The company’s goal is to grow their constellation up to 140 spacecrafts, all located in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Kepler’s third satellite, TARS (Kepler-3), was launched in September 2020.

The names KIPP, CASE, and TARS are taken from the fictitious US Marine Corps robots of the same name in the 2014 film “Interstellar.

The satellites have been built by ÅAC Clyde Space, a company based in Glasgow, Scotland that specializes in CubeSat and SmallSat production. The company plans to construct its own satellites.

Company History

The company was founded in 2015 by Mina Mitry, Samer Bishay, Jeffrey R Osborne, Mark Michael and Wen Cheng Chong

In September 2020 two new GEN1 satellites were added into Kepler’s constellation to increase the capacity of Kepler’s Global Data Services. The two satellites, Kepler-4 and Kepler-5, were successfully launched on a Soyuz 2 rocket, operated by GK Launch Services, from the launch site in Kazakhstan. 

In June 2021 the company raised 60 million USD in a new round to help the company grow, including an expansion in the U.S. The equity round was led by Tribe Capital, which has previously invested in space companies Relativity and Momentus, with funding also coming from Addition Capital and Canaan Partners.

In December 2021, SmallSat operator Spire Global and Kepler agreed to test the company’s in-space communications network Ærther by using a Spire Global satellite. Spire will host Kepler’s ÆTHER product aboard an upcoming Spire Nano-satellite due to launch in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

In April 2023 Kepler raised 92 million USD in its Series C funding round, led by IA Ventures. The company plans to use the funding to launch an optical data relay infrastructure to complement the existing radio frequency network. The company plans to launch the optical data relay infrastructure in 2024. Its optical communications infrastructure will use two near-orthogonal planes of relay satellites in sun-synchronous orbits, with satellites in each plane continuously connected using optical inter-satellite links that are compatible with the Space Development Agency (SDA) standard. Optical services will be operational and available to customers by the first quarter of 2025. It is designed to operate as internet exchange points (IXP) for space-to-space data relay.

Kepler Satellites

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Resources

www.kepler.space
www.satellitetoday.com  edition December 17^th, 2021
www.wikipedia.org
www.crunchbase.com
www.cnbc.com  edition June 9^th, 2021
www.craft.co
www.globalnewswire.com  edition September 28^th, 2021
www.golden.com
www.satellitetoday.com  edition April 13^th, 2023