Cailabs and Kepler Communications to explore satellite-to-ground optical service for customers

• Cailabs and Kepler Communications have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore a satellite-to-ground optical link service for Kepler customers.
• The service would use Cailabs optical ground infrastructure to bring data from the Kepler Network to customers on Earth.
• The agreement builds on the successful, routine bidirectional optical data links between Cailabs’ station in Rennes and Kepler’s SDA (Space Development Agency)-compatible T0 and T1 constellations.

Rennes, France and Toronto, Canada, September 10, 2026—Global deeptech company Cailabs, a world leader in advanced photonics, and Kepler Communications, an international satellite telecommunications company that builds real-time connectivity for space, have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore how Cailabs can provide satellite-to-ground optical links for Kepler customers.

Under the proposed model, Cailabs would provide optical ground infrastructure and services through which data from the Kepler Network could get to customers on Earth. The service would give Kepler customers a route from orbit to their own systems without requiring them to build a separate optical ground segment.

The agreement builds on an established technical collaboration between the two companies. Since November 2024, Cailabs and Kepler have routinely established bidirectional satellite-to-ground optical data links between Kepler’s T0 and T1 optical Pathfinder spacecraft and Cailabs’ optical ground station in Rennes, France. The companies achieved repeatedly full Space Development Agency-standard acquisition and error-free data links in horizon-to-horizon satellite-to-ground passes.

The MoU will explore how this proven technical capability could be developed into a service for Kepler customers.

Jean-François Morizur, CEO of Cailabs, said:

‘We’re pleased that our work with Kepler is moving beyond mere demonstration. This is about building on our successful partnership, which has routinely resulted in bidirectional optical data links with its T0 and T1 satellites.

‘We now want to see how together, we can serve customers. The goal is to join Kepler’s network in orbit to reliable optical services on the ground and offer the whole path as a service.’

 “Kepler has established the foundation for real-time, high-capacity data movement in space, and we are continuing to expand this critical infrastructure for customers,” said Mina Mitry, CEO and co-founder of Kepler Communications. “Building on our successful work with Cailabs  broadens how customers access the infrastructure, adding another proven path from Kepler spacecraft into systems on Earth.” 

Cailabs’ optical ground stations use the company’s patented turbulence-compensation technology to limit the way the atmosphere distorts a laser beam. The company has six deployed and operable optical ground stations and more than 10 under contract.

Optical links can transmit huge volumes of data without needing licensed radio-frequency spectrum. Their narrow beams also make them harder to detect, intercept or jam from outside the path of the link. A managed satellite-to-ground service would allow operators to benefit without first building their own optical ground infrastructure.

Establishing an optical link is an essential first step. Delivering an operational service also requires repeatability, deployed ground infrastructure and the ability to bring data into customers’ systems. By combining Kepler’s network in orbit with Cailabs’ optical ground capabilities, the companies aim to move from proven, routine links to reliable satellite-to-ground optical services that customers can use without building and operating their own ground segment.