Kepler Confirms Launch, Deployment of Four New GEN1 Satellites

Kepler Communications confirmed the successful launch and deployment of four new satellites into its constellation yesterday, expanding the active its constellation to 19 satellites in total. 

• "Every satellite we add to our constellation increases our capacity and transfer frequency of remote and maritime connectivity, increasing the quality of our service and ensuring that our customer's data ends up where they want in a timely manner," a Kepler spokesperson told MarineLink after the launch.

These four satellites; KEPLER-16, KEPLER-17, KEPLER-18, and KEPLER-19 were successfully launched via a Falcon 9 out of Cape Canaveral as part of the Transporter-3 mission at approximately 10:25 AM EDT. Once fully operational within the constellation these will add additional capacity to Kepler’s Global Data Service (GDS) offering while also performing as a test bed for bringing the internet to space, Kepler’s ÆTHER service.  

“The opportunity to build and bring the internet in space is the driving force here at Kepler and a key reason why I joined," said Diane Burchett, recently promoted to VP of Engineering. "The technical challenge of bringing consistent and persistent connectivity to objects moving at more than 28,000 kph is an exciting challenge and we look forward to successfully demonstrating our progress towards that goal with this first ÆTHER launch.”

Photo courtesy Kepler Communications