Kepler Communications and Kongsberg NanoAvionics have teamed up to put on a laser show for Europe.
Kepler announced its selection of NanoAvionics as its preferred satellite bus provider in Europe today, opening the door for hosted payloads onboard NanoAvionics’ buses to tap into Kepler’s optical communications network.
At a time when the amount of data being gathered in-space is increasing exponentially, demand for real-time access to that data is compounding. Compared with traditional RF links, optical tech can ship massive amounts of data in an instant. Now NanoAvionics’ customers are being handed access to the new optical network without any heavy lifting.
You get a laser! The deal is a textbook win-win for both companies.
- NanoAvionics gets the green light to offer its customers sub-second 2.5-Gbps connectivity, and terabytes of data per day as an optional add-on, setting the already popular hosted payload provider further apart from competitors.
- Kepler gets an immediate extension of its reach in Europe, allowing the Canadian satcom company an immediate dataflow as it operationalizes its comms pipeline.
Add a third “-win” for the customers in Europe that are being let into the optical communications club, just one month after Kepler launched its first tranche of 10 optical comms sats.
“Up until recently, the use of optical backhaul has mostly been seen in large governmental and defence constellations, or broadband megaconstellations,” NanoAvionics CEO Atle Wøllo told Payload in an emailed statement. “More recently, NanoAvionics has seen an increasing number of commercial customers wanting high-capacity, low-latency inter-satellite connectivity.”
And now they can have it. NanoAvionics plans to offer the new capability on both its MP42 microsatellite and cubesat platforms, using different optical intersatellite links.
Looking ahead: Kepler’s deployment plans remain unchanged in the wake of the deal. The company is scaling its network toward 100 Gbps-class capacity with its next tranche of 10 optical relay sats, expected to launch in 2028.
In the meantime, the company is laying the groundwork to broaden its reach in Europe, by supporting sovereign constellations through its secure data network. Kepler is also hunting down institutional contracts, and was selected as the prime contractor for Element 1 of ESA’s HydRON (High-throughput Digital and Optical Network) program for optical comms.
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