Kepler Communications Inc., a Toronto-based space company founded in 2015 by four University of Toronto graduate students, has cemented its position as the operator of the largest fleet of Canadian-built spacecraft after recently launching 10 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Globe and Mail reports .
Mina Mitry, Kepler's CEO and an alumnus of U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, watched the launch alongside other company representatives, including adviser and former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. "It was absolutely amazing to watch," Mitry told the Globe after observing the controlled landing of the rocket's first stage at the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
With 33 satellites now in orbit, Kepler has developed a space-based optical network that uses lasers to communicate between satellites up to 6,500 kilometres away, significantly reducing data latency compared to traditional radio-based systems, according to a separate Globe feature on the company published earlier this month. The satellites perform onboard computation and support applications ranging from wildfire monitoring to Arctic surveillance.
Mitry, who immigrated to Canada from Egypt with his family when he was six, told the Globe that he hit his stride at U of T during his second year when he helped grow the University of Toronto Aerospace Team and met fellow Kepler co-founders Jeffrey Osborne, Mark Michael and Wen Cheng Chong. The company, which received early support from several U of T incubators and accelerators, has since raised more than $200 million.
