Miles Jamison 
- NorthStar will host optical space domain awareness sensors on Kepler satellite infrastructure
- Kepler will provide low-latency optical data relay from orbit to users
- The partnership aims to support persistent monitoring of orbital activity
Space intelligence and data analytics company NorthStar Earth & Space and Kepler Communications, a satellite telecommunications provider, have partnered to integrate space-based space domain awareness, or SDA, services with optical data relay infrastructure, NorthStar said Thursday.
What Does the Partnership Involve?
The collaboration is intended to support faster deployment of orbital sensing capabilities and streamline the delivery of space intelligence to government and commercial customers. Under the agreement, Kepler will host NorthStar’s optical SDA sensors as payloads on its satellite infrastructure, which provides low-latency data transport directly from orbit to end users.
The partnership comes shortly after Kepler began commercial operations of its optical data relay network. The company said its first tranche, launched in January, consists of 10 satellites equipped with high-capacity optical terminals, onboard computing capabilities and hosted payload capacity.
How Will the Companies Expand SDA Capabilities?
NorthStar and Kepler plan to work together on deploying additional SDA sensors under a longer-term agreement. The companies said the effort is intended to support persistent monitoring of activity in different orbital regimes as demand for space domain awareness services grows.
Kepler had also demonstrated space-to-ground optical data relay capabilities before deploying the constellation. In May 2025, the company reported an optical data relay demonstration that built on its work with optical communications for space-based missions.
What Did Kepler & NorthStar Leaders Say About the Partnership?
Kepler CEO and Co-Founder Mina Mitry said the company’s constellation was designed to support real-time space applications and to transport mission data from orbit to users, calling the NorthStar partnership an example of how integrated space infrastructure can accelerate the deployment of sensing missions.
Stewart Bain, CEO and founder of NorthStar, said the partnership will help the company deploy sensors and deliver space-based SDA services to customers faster.
