Kepler network to link OroraTech sensors for Earth monitoring

MILAN — OroraTech has entered a multi-year partnership with Kepler to supply thermal sensors for Kepler’s new optical communications constellation. 

The first four SAFIRE Gen4 sensors under the agreement launched Jan. 11 aboard a Falcon 9, flying as part of the constellation’s initial deployment.

“With Kepler, we are doing something completely new that will revolutionize the Earth observation market,” Martin Langer, OroraTech’s CEO, told SpaceNews. “It’s a significant leap from what’s existed before, and no commercial provider has deployed thermal in this way and scale.”    

The Munich-based company deploys its sensors partly on proprietary satellites and partly as hosted payloads. It aims to have 100 thermal instruments in low Earth orbit by the end of 2027, forming a laser-linked, always-on network capable of delivering near-real-time thermal imaging of Earth. With the Jan. 11 launch and the decommissioning of its first satellite, Forest-1, the company has a fleet of 15 active instruments. 

With this setup, OroraTech can provide time-lapse thermal imagery at hourly intervals for selected target areas, with a daily revisit rate at the global scale. With the addition of the new sensors hosted on Kepler’s satellites —  which are a fleet of ten 300-kilogram-class spacecraft equipped with an advanced optical networking system designed to minimize data latency — the company aims to collect data in orbit and downlink it within minutes.

Optical satellite links are central to that shift. By routing data through space rather than relying on ground-station passes, a laser-linked network allows thermal imagery to be relayed across the constellation and downlinked as soon as a satellite comes into contact with a ground node.“This is tremendous for us and wildfires monitoring,” Langer added. “It moves us closer to treating the data as a live stream rather than a delayed product.”

Founded in 2018, OroraTech began launching its sensors in 2022 on third party satellites and, in 2025, deployed its first proprietary satellite, Forest-3. “For us, entering a collaboration with Kepler means moving from isolated missions to persistent coverage,” Langer said.

For Kepler, the partnership expands the utility of its constellation beyond communications. “This partnership demonstrates how the industry can break new ground and deliver on the promise of real-time access to data, said Mina Mitry, CEO and cofounder of Kepler. The new sensors, weighing about 5 kilograms each, incorporate an updated algorithm from the Gen3 model and a “live” feature that allows in-orbit tweaking and testing.