Kepler promotes Caitlin Marsh to president of Kepler U.S. Kepler Communications announced Monday it has named Caitlin Marsh president of its U.S. subsidiary, three months after she joined the Toronto company as the unit's vice president. Kepler U.S., based in Sterling, Va., sells the company's optical data relay service to American government and commercial customers. Marsh will also oversee its work on computing in orbit and on carrying other organizations' payloads aboard Kepler spacecraft. The company has launched 33 satellites, and the first tranche of its relay network entered commercial service in August. "Mission operators need proven optical infrastructure on orbit they can put to work today," chief executive and co-founder Mina Mitry said in the release. "Kepler has established global leadership in optical data relay, and Caitlin will lead our efforts to bring those capabilities to more U.S. customers." Marsh came to Kepler in July from Auterion, the drone-autonomy company, where she was senior director of global operations. The release says she set up a U.S. production line that took an international security program from award to delivery in six months. She was earlier vice president of product at SpiderOak, which makes cybersecurity software for space operations, and held strategy and advanced-programs roles at Ball Aerospace. At In-Q-Tel, the not-for-profit investor that backs technology for the U.S. intelligence community, she managed a portfolio of 12 companies. She holds an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Maryland and a master's in systems engineering from George Washington University. Marsh said her priority is "to accelerate adoption across government and commercial programs," adding: "We will drive that expansion by growing our U.S. organization, strengthening industry partnerships, and putting Kepler's capabilities to work on our customers' most demanding missions." Marsh replaces Robert Conrad who held the job before her. Conrad had been with Kepler Communications US Inc since Jan 2023 and was promoted to president of Kepler U.S. in November 2024 after two years running its business development. In that stretch the subsidiary won a place on the Space Development Agency's HALO contract vehicle for prototype missions, and a Kepler satellite later passed an air-to-space laser link test for the agency. Conrad is now president and COO of Solstar Space Co. Marsh takes over as Kepler lines up its next expansion of its relay network. The company has booked a dedicated Rocket Lab Neutron launch and 10 satellites on Portal Space Systems' Motus Via Sol mission, both aimed at a 2028 build-out the release says will bring laser links of up to 100 gigabits per second and more room for hosted payloads.

Caitlin Marsh named Kepler US president. * Caitlin Marsh has taken the top post at Kepler's U.S. arm * Marsh to help drive U.S. growth of Kepler's optical relay services * Her prior roles include posts at Auterion, In-Q-Tel and Ball Aerospace Caitlin Marsh, a former Auterion operations executive, has been named president of Kepler Communications U.S., the U.S. arm of Toronto-based space infrastructure company Kepler Communications. What will Marsh oversee at Kepler US? In her new role, Kepler said Monday Marsh will direct Kepler's expansion in the U.S. market. She will offer the company's optical data relay network, on-orbit computing and hosted payload services to government and commercial clients whose missions depend on rapid data delivery. "Mission operators need proven optical infrastructure on orbit they can put to work today," said Mina Mitry, CEO and co-founder of Kepler. "Kepler has established global leadership in optical data relay, and Caitlin will lead our efforts to bring those capabilities to more U.S. customers. She has a strong track record building teams and delivering complex programs, combined with the energy and fresh perspective to accelerate our growth." Who is Caitlin Marsh? Marsh is a technology and operations executive with 15 years of experience growing advanced technology businesses and programs in the national security, aerospace and commercial sectors. She most recently served as senior director of global operations at Auterion. There, she oversaw corporate strategy execution spanning products, programs and customer success for the company's U.S. and European teams. Her earlier career includes leadership positions in product development, enterprise strategy and advanced systems program development at SpiderOak and Ball Aerospace. She also managed 12 portfolio tech companies at In-Q-Tel and helped U.S. intelligence and defense customers transition commercial technologies into operational use. Marsh said optical infrastructure and on-orbit computing will play a central role in future U.S. space missions. "With operational infrastructure and the ability to host payloads for real-time, high-bandwidth connectivity from LEO, our priority is to accelerate adoption across government and commercial programs. We will drive that expansion by growing our U.S. organization, strengthening industry partnerships, and putting Kepler's capabilities to work on our customers' most demanding missions," Marsh stated. What is Kepler Communications US? Kepler Communications U.S. is a subsidiary of Toronto-based Kepler Communications. It provides U.S. customers with real-time access to space data through the parent company's commercial optical data relay constellation, which supports continuous connectivity from space along with on-orbit compute and hosted payload capabilities. Kepler launched the first tranche of its optical data relay satellites in January, sending 10 spacecraft to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. After commissioning the satellites, the company began commercial operations for its optical data relay network in August. That same month, Kepler partnered with NorthStar Earth & Space to host the latter's optical space domain awareness sensors as payloads on its satellite infrastructure. The next tranche of spacecraft, planned for deployment in 2028, will introduce optical data rates of up to 100 gigabits per second and add hosted payload capacity.