Derrick Henry
Kepler Communications has signed an agreement to sell on-orbit compute capabilities to Axiom Space’s orbital data center, or ODC, business.
Under the deal, Axiom Space will purchase two on-orbit computing payloads that will support advanced processing, data storage, cloud compute, artificial intelligence, multi-sensor data fusion and other space use cases, Kepler said Monday. Axiom Space will have options to procure additional payloads on Kepler’s constellation to increase its ODC capacity.
Expanding Mission Possibilities
The agreement will deliver multiple offerings allowing the client “to send, store and enhance their on-orbit data,” according to Kepler CEO and co-founder Mina Mitry. “Launching an on-orbit compute capacity enables our customers to extend terrestrial computing concepts into space to expand the possibilities of their mission,” he explained.
“This collaboration with Axiom Space will accelerate the reality of on-orbit computing, enabling real-time decision making, enhanced mission autonomy, advanced imaging and artificial intelligence/machine learning insights, and other on-orbit processing applications tailored for space missions,” Mitry added.
The Kepler Network
The on-orbit computing capabilities are engineered to work with the Kepler Network, the satellite constellation that offers customers improved performance, real-time analysis, reduced latency and enhanced security. Kepler satellite users can also access data relay services and schedule optical inter-satellite links for incoming and outgoing data. Kepler is scheduled to launch its initial tranche of optical data relay satellites in the last quarter of 2025 and the second tranche sometime in 2027.
