• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Featured
  • More News ⌄
    • SatNews
    • SatMagazine
    • MilSatMagazine
  • Events ⌄
    • MilSat Symposium
    • SmallSat Symposium
    • Satellite Innovation
  • Contacts
  • SUBSCRIPTION

SmallSat News

You are here: Home / News / Kepler Initiates Smallsat Builds In-House

Kepler Initiates Smallsat Builds In-House

January 29, 2020 by editorial

Kepler Communications begins their smallsat production in the firm’s newly commissioned satellite manufacturing facility in Toronto, Canada. This is an essential step toward delivering the company’s proposed fleet of 140 satellites for high-capacity global connectivity services with applications in maritime, agriculture, research and exploration, government, and transportation.


(From left to right) Damien Sablijak (Kepler Hardware Engineer Intern), Chris Summers (Kepler Assembly Technician), Walter Peruzzini (CSA Head of STDP Program), Mina Mitry (Kepler CEO), Tony Pellerin (CSA Manager for Space Exploration Systems Engineering) and Shehroz Hussain (Kepler Manufacturing Systems Engineering). In-part through the CSA’s STDP program, Kepler was able to hire Damien, Chris, and Shehroz to work in the manufacturing facility.

Photo is courtesy of the company.

Kepler currently operates two smallsats on-orbit, ones that became the world’s first satellites to deliver high-speed connectivity to the North Pole in November last year. Rather than contracting from third parties, the new facility will allow the company to vertically integrate the development, production and testing of its future spacecraft. It will also speed up the build-out of Kepler’s constellation to bring connectivity in areas that are currently underserved by terrestrial networks.

The new facility will significantly benefit the local economy with the opening of new high-tech jobs in Toronto, creating opportunities for local talent and strengthening the role of Canada in the aerospace manufacturing industry as a whole. Millions in capital will be invested into the city, benefiting the Canadian partners and suppliers who support Kepler’s expanding operations and growing teams.

Increasing demand from new commercial space companies has placed a greater strain on satellite manufacturing in the last 20 years. Greater numbers of new satellites, funded through commercial investment and government contracts, have congested the supply chain. Coupled with expectations of an exponential increase in commercial launch activity in the near future, more satellite manufacturing capacity than ever is needed to meet market demand.

With the opening of its manufacturing facility, Kepler will be among the few commercial space companies that operate with vertically integrated production. In doing so, the company will establish the foundation to meet performance and economic targets and ensure a fully operable constellation by the end of 2022.

Leveraging a partnership with SFL, and with recent funding from the Canadian Space Agency’s Space Technology Development Program, Kepler has optimized its new high-performance satellite platform for production in large quantities.

Kepler’s final demonstration satellite is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2020, closely followed by the launch of its first two, Toronto-built, commercial-grade satellites in the summer. Two more satellite batches are planned for launch before the end of the year on the SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicles.

Kepler’s CEO and co-founder, Mina Mitry, said the company recognized early on that the smallsat industry has a significant challenge ahead in maturing the supply chain for various components and subsystems. At Kepler, steps are being taken to ensure the firm can reach the required cost and performance targets. This is a necessary step to deliver on Kepler’s promise of affordable, global connectivity on Earth and in space. With this new facility in place, the company solves a key challenge to scaling this business – the mass production of highly capable spacecraft. Leveraging Kepler’s unique partnerships, the satellites we produce will fly systems that have decades of learning embedded into them. This facility will bring many highly capable Kepler satellites to life at unmatched costs and help us deliver service globally.

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019

© 2019–2023 SatNews

x
Sign Up Now!

Enjoy a free weekly newsletter with recent headlines from the global SmallSat industry.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing! You will now receive weekly SmallSat News updates.
We love our advertisers.
And you will too!

Please disable Ad Blocker to continue... We promise to keep it unobtrusive.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.