Kepler Communications CEO talks sovereignty, security, and space data

Time Markers

00:00 – Episode introduction
00:51 – Welcome
01:27 – Conference expectations
02:08 – A milestone test
03:39 – Why is this significant
05:46 – Impact for operators
06:53 – Next steps
07:19 – Kepler’s role
08:48 – Sovereignty concerns
10:15 – Working with agencies
12:48 – Defense and national security
15:00 – Market breadth
15:12 – Geopolitical shifts
17:05 – Looking ahead

Transcript – Mina Mitry Conversation

Mike Gruss – Hello and welcome to the Space Minds podcast, in partnership with BlackSky. I’m Mike Gruss from SpaceNews, and we’re recording here in Paris at World Space Business Week. We’re speaking with a series of CEOs and leaders this week, and today I’m pleased to be joined by Mina Mitry, CEO of Kepler Communications. Thanks so much for being here. To start, what are you listening for this week? What kinds of conversations are you hoping to have, and what do you want to learn from these meetings?

Mina Mitry – Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Mike. I’m super excited to dig in, and this is a really exciting time period, I think mostly because this particular week we’re really seeing the proliferation of optical communications, and the industry at large has been waiting for the technology to mature for a few years now, and we’re kind of at this bit of a point where we’re seeing a lot more deployment, a lot of folks that are proliferating towards the SDA standard and really listening in for those who have made their design trades and decisions of, will they be flying SDA compatible terminals or looking for interoperability downstream, and how will they be using optical communications to really reimagine their business altogether.

Mike Gruss – Yeah. Let’s start with an announcement that that you guys had earlier this month. Walk us through that. And it was a the first, or it was, well, you tell me, I don’t want, I want to get the details right, but help me walk, walk me through these details of the most the recent test that was announced earlier this month.

Mina Mitry – We’re extremely proud, and, you know, couldn’t be more delighted. In partnership with the Space Development Agency GA General Atomics, we were able to put together a demonstration where we flew our spacecraft overhead and had an aircraft use an optical terminal to route data between our space segment and the aircraft back and forth, you know, routing gigabytes of data regularly in a reliable way. And this represents a significant milestone for a number of different reasons. It’s the first in the world. Yeah, we’ve never before as a as a world population, deployed optical terminals that are used for communication between aircraft and spacecraft. This really complex physics problem you consider the flight path of a spacecraft and the flight path of an aircraft, making the two intersect. It’s a bad math problem. It’s a bad math problem, and concerns about jitter, when you consider that in an aircraft, there’s a lot of things that move and vibrate and they can disturb the optical link. Being able to maintain a link pretty persistently is a huge milestone achievement, and I think what it most importantly represents is that the state of optical technologies is really mature.

Mike Gruss – Yeah. Why? Why is this a significant milestone? What did like talk about why it’s important.

Mina Mitry – So when you look at the use cases of border patrol, border monitoring, they deploy drones, manned aircraft, and a lot of defense technologies that are in use for doing that application, RF signals are subjected jamming. Yep, they’re subjected…

Mike Gruss – We’ve seen a lot more certainly, in last decade.

Mina Mitry – Exactly. And we’re going to expect that we need to do a lot more Border Patrol, border monitoring over the coming years, especially in 2027 2028 and during those time periods, we’re looking for a solution that is resilient, robust and can serve the needs, because the other advantage we have using optical links is just significantly higher Data rates. I think we’re seeing, you know, three significant stuff, function changes there.

Mike Gruss – And talk about that. That’s not this isn’t just a little bit of information. This is mass amounts, mass massive amounts. That’s important. And how does that help someone who’s flying the aircraft, or you like, what? What does that allow to be transmitted that maybe in the past could not have been.

Mina Mitry – So now we can go down the path of real time streaming of a lot of aerial imagery at high resolution, and look at a lot of sensor modalities in altogether that can be routed over satellite. And historically, some of these links might have been more restricted.

So when we look at the optical links that we’re deploying on these aircraft, we’re starting in at two and a half gigabits per second. That’s kind of the going in data rate that you get. And then from there, it jumps up to 10 to 100 and then 400 gigabits per second. And these are just, you know, exponential increases that aren’t readily achievable in the RF domain, especially when you consider the physics limitations having to go through atmosphere or needing to communicate to few geo or few Leo spacecraft that are operational, and the contention that they might face with the laser links, we get hugely resilient, jam proof communications that happens at really high data rates. So not only does it allow for high resolution imagery to flow, but multi multiple modalities of sensory payloads that can be collected now and transmitted over satellite, because satellites the only alternative. In a lot of these border patrol border monitoring scenarios.

Mike Gruss – So what’s the next step here? Then what do we look for next?

Mina Mitry – I think you got to stay tuned for the rest of the announcements.

Mike Gruss – This has been the latest in a series of tests that have happened over the last couple of years. I mean, should we expect to see more tests? We expect to see more this put into operations, more government contracts. What I mean broadly? What do you expect there?

Mina Mitry – Yeah, so I think what you’re going to expect to see, first of all, we’ve been running these tests for several years. We did space to space communications so had our respective satellites communicated with one another. We did Space to Ground based testing, so using our spacecraft to route data to ground based assets. And the pinnacle that we’ve reached today is space to aircraft based testing, which is probably the hardest of the three dates to jump over. And what you’re going to see now is going to operational use cases. So we have a significant spacecraft deployment that’s coming up in December, January this year, we’re going to be deploying a large number of spacecraft that go into service and then build off the test campaigns that we’ve been doing today to deploy operational services in both defense, commercial and other use cases.

Mike Gruss – Should we expect to see more, more tests and more announcements from some of those tests?

Mina Mitry – Yeah, I think you’re going to expect to see a few more announcements from some of those tests. But more importantly, you’re going to get to see sort of now, the operational deployments, okay, now, how are we collecting a variety of sensory data, routing it through our network, and delivering on our mission of bringing Internet access outside of earth so that we can so enjoy the benefits of it that we’ve been seeing here on Earth, but outside of Earth?

Mike Gruss – Talk me a little bit about how you see Kepler fitting into this, this information eco space or ecosystem that that’s kind of evolving and changing almost day to day. Where, where do you? Where do you see kept fitting? And how do you differentiate yourself from so many competitors, and many of whom are here this week, yep.

Mina Mitry – So really, our focus is on, on orbit, space data. Really, we’re building a foundational infrastructure that we will enable a lot of use cases to both be better served today and some new use cases that we never thought before will come into existence as a result of our newly developed capability. Now where we focus our efforts is we are a interoperable open architecture. Really think that the future the space economy needs an open architecture. It needs standards based approach it can’t tolerate with a single, proprietary terminal or proprietary system. I think that flies in the face of what a lot of nation states are prioritizing these days, which is sovereignty, the ability for them to go out and independently deploy their own space capabilities. They don’t want to be tied into a single proprietary standard. So our continued focus on interoperability and open standard space architecture, I think, is really key to the market and key to what we’re hearing people need, both on the commercial and on the defense side. So that’s where we’re going to be focusing the majority of our efforts and really deploying a system that’s fit for purpose.

Mike Gruss – When you talk about sovereignty, because that’s something everyone is talking about this week, and I think probably has been for a good part of this year. But really think it feels like it’s hitting home a little bit more specifically here in Europe. What how do you respond to that conversation? What do you how do you say, Hey, here’s what we can offer here, and here’s how we see this market evolving for Kepler.

Mina Mitry – Sovereignty is really a question of control. Yep, right. So do you have the authority, the ability, to control your own destiny? And that’s really how we kind of distill down the question of sovereignty, using an interoperable standard allows people to opt into our network or to use any third party network, and that is really how we respond to that question of sovereignty. So we maintain SDA compatibility. We’re working with the European Space Agency on their estol standard, helping define that and making it backwards compatible with the SDA standard and all those use cases, we enable people to kind of make their own decisions, of, do you want to work with a Kepler network? Do you want to work with a third party network? And that’s the benefit of an open architecture. And so they can build their own space asset independent of Kepler, and have it still be a sovereign, owned and controlled asset, and where their data needs are benefit from real time connectivity and our internet based architecture. They can route data through our network or through any third party network. That’s really our answer to the sovereignty question.

Mike Gruss – You’ve worked, you mentioned SDA, you mentioned ESA. What there’s been work with NASA? What is, what’s kind of the next step with each of these agencies? And how do you these? How do you how do you see them working? How do you see that splitting up within Kepler? Is it? Are these? Is there going to be more of a government division? Is this going to be or is this more more business can focus on commercial.

Mina Mitry – So I think the benefit of having a mission that’s aligned to bringing internet outside of Earth is we really don’t need to discriminate too strongly between their respective customers. We have an IP based architecture where customers are able to connect in their route IP packets like a traditional internet service provider. They’re still responsible for encryption or decryption of their data, and we’ve seen that be resonant both with our commercial and our defense customers.

And so they’re open to working in that way, because they’re used to working with the public internet that we have access to today, and for that reason, we’re seeing an equal interest between both commercial and government users to opt into our network. When it comes to a lot of these agencies, you know, what are we really looking forward to? We’re excited about the future of human spaceflight. What happens when we decommission the International Space Station? What’s going to be the next generation future that and human spaceflight will require a huge amount of data traffic.

That is a really exciting market opportunity. But for us, we’re also really excited about the range of sensor modalities we can enable to have their data delivered in real time. Modality, modality—yeah, I can use a different word—the range of payload data, whether it be thermal infrared, synthetic aperture radar, GPS, radio occultation, you can choose your pick of any of these data streams that have historically been provided with a 30 minute to 90 minute latency. The number one issue that’s top of mind for any of the end users and consumers of this data is, how do we get the latency down to five minutes? How do we get effective real time information access, and it runs across the entirety of their TCP’d loop. So, you know, their collection, their processing, their exploitation, their dissemination loop. How do we enable our customers through the range of that loop to minimize their latency down to five minutes? And it’s incredibly important when you think of whether it’s defense or commercial use cases that are looking for real time access to information.

Mike Gruss – There are a lot of—there are seemingly going to be a lot of defense or national security opportunities in the next year, both, I think, in the US and in Europe. How do you, how do you see Kepler being positioned for some of those? I think one that obviously comes to mind, there’s a lot of talk with golden bill, golden dog about, almost everyone’s looking at that as an opportunity. There could be opportunities there. I think in Europe, there’s obviously been a lot of talk about larger defense budgets there. How do you, how do you see Kepler navigating both those opportunities?

Mina Mitry – I think one that’s, you know, goes quite understated, is the Canadian defense. Yeah, so let’s talk about it. Yeah. And I think it’s important to talk about. So Canada, just recently this year, announced that they’ll look to spend 2% of their GDP towards their NATO commitments before the end of the fiscal year.

That is March 2026, roughly $9 billion to spend has to be allocated between what is today’s September 15, 16th and March 2026. That’s a hard commitment to meet. And for them, they’re looking for space domain awareness. They’re looking for all sorts of capability that can bolster the Department of National Defense.

So I think that’s quite an understated market in general. You know, historically, most of the space actors are in the US and Europe, but Canada right now is making a significant push towards the rapid deployment of sovereign capability for Arctic monitoring needs more specifically, and we’re going to see that be a huge uptick. And so that’s a little bit of a home court advantage for us. We’re Canadian domiciled, and I think that both breeds trust and allows us to access these Department of National Defense opportunities.

And so to tie it into the broader picture, you know, being a Canadian company, we inherit trust. That is the kind of Canadian national brand, and that is what allows us to compete on a national scale or international scale. So you see us have both contracts and commitments from the Space Development Agency in the US, Space Force, and the European Space Agency. And I think that’s kind of one of the few advantages that not a lot of other players have out there in the world.

Mike Gruss – So it sounds like maybe all those markets are in play.

Mina Mitry – That’s right.

Mike Gruss – Yeah, okay. And then how about with this—you know, I think the other thing that so many folks are talking about this week is that just shifting geopolitical environment. What does that mean directly? Is it that autonomy that maybe Canada or Europe is seeking and that means new money and budgets, or are there other opportunities for you there?

Mina Mitry – I think, you know, it ties back to sort of the three key points I’ve been raising a little bit earlier on. Yeah, with a shifting geopolitical landscape, you know, people are looking for trusted sources, trusted suppliers. There is increasing concern over programs in the US that might have a D-pass rating that otherwise interrupt the ability for that supply to flow to European and other partners. And, you know, in Canada, we have an advantage there, so being able to give people a trusted source that’s reliable—that’s what the shifting geopolitical landscape enables or asks for at this time. The second one is really sovereignty. So that’s a question of control.

By being an open architecture that is interoperable both with the SDA, European estol standard, that gives people the control that they’re seeking, right? They’re not committed to a proprietary, closed source ecosystem that only they can—you know, they’re at the mercy of their supplier. And they want to preserve their sovereignty by having these alternatives. That also enables their local, domestic companies to play in the space, right? Because it’s an open architecture, they can then incentivize their local domestic players to participate in it without having, you know, the restrictions of a proprietary system. And I would say, sort of last but not least, it’s really the opportunity to provide real time data that hasn’t existed before. So historically, a lot of this Earth observing data has been provisioned on a 30 minute or 90 minute latency. The number one requested thing today from all these end users—how do we get this down to five minutes.

Mike Gruss – Yeah, and the answer is?

Mina Mitry – The answer is, we’re happy to help.

Mike Gruss – I wanted to end with a question about some milestones for the next year. What do you expect if we’re chatting next year in Paris, what will you say are hopefully some of the accomplishments from the end of 2025, most of 26?

Mina Mitry – Yeah, so I’ll probably end up having to revisit this—yes, started—but that’s why we have the year. And so, because, I think, you know, we’re not that far away from realizing the true vision of bringing Internet access outside of Earth. I think I mentioned at the end of December, early January, you’ll see our completed operational system going on to deployment. Be a lot of fun pictures, content to share around that. There will be a few use case announcements that follow thereafter. So taking on from the early testing that we’ve done, that will go directly into operational systems. So getting a wide variety of sensors and data that are now flowing their data in real time that historically hasn’t been possible before, you know, that’s going to come in short order thereafter. I think you’re going to start to see, you know, not just in the testing of space-to-air going into operational use cases, some of these novel applications that we didn’t envision before that were—

Mike Gruss – Just accelerates.

Mina Mitry – And that’s right, you have to change the way you think about it. Yeah. And so, you know, I think I tie this back to the original point I raised, which is there are a series of current problems that we know today that we’re gonna be solving. So how do we get data latency back to five minutes? How do we address some sovereignty concerns? How do we deliver a trusted solution? And so those are the known problems we’re solving to date, and you’re going to see progressive milestones that deliver against that. Right after the deployment of our network, at the end of this year, you’re going to have a few use case announcements that are solving those currently known problems. And then beyond that, there’s the green field of opportunities that we didn’t think were possible before, but now become possible with deployment of our network. An example of that is space-to-aircraft testing. There are other example use cases that I think we’ll also be announcing towards the tail end of next year.

Mike Gruss – Great. I’m looking forward to it.

Mina Mitry – Yeah, it’ll be an exciting time.

Mike Gruss – Thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

Mina Mitry – Thanks so much for having me.