Mina Mitry talks launching the world\u2019s first optical relay satellite network ahead of Toronto Tech Week appearance.<\/p>\n
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Kepler Communications co-founder and CEO Mina Mitry was trying to launch Canada into space before it was cool.<\/p>\n
When he started the satellite communications company a decade ago, Mitry said people thought there was no way someone could build a Canadian company focused on space. Now? It\u2019s all the rage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next month, Mitry will take the stage at the second annual Homecoming, the official mainstage event of Toronto Tech Week 2026. Held this year at a new venue, History, Homecoming is just one of over 300 partner-run events<\/a> taking place during Toronto Tech Week from May 25-29.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are probably very few true impacts I could make with my lifetime, and this is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Mina Mitry, Kepler<\/p>\n In January, Kepler became the first company in the world<\/a> to launch a low-earth orbit satellite system based on an optical relay network. While everyone attending the launch, including Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, celebrated when the rocket went up, Mitry said it took his team weeks of connecting satellites via lasers before they could properly enjoy the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a media partner of Toronto Tech Week, BetaKit sat down with Mitry ahead of Homecoming to learn more about the historic satellite network launch, Canada\u2019s potential to be a major player in the space domain, and the best barbecue joint in Toronto.<\/p>\n The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019re speaking at Toronto Tech Week\u2019s Homecoming event. Can you give us a sneak preview of what you plan to talk about?\u00a0<\/p>\n Democratized access to space and the future of space and AI, because I think that there\u2019s a big intersection there.<\/p>\n We talk a lot about the need for inference and autonomy in space, especially if you\u2019re doing things like detecting and tracking objects through space. You can\u2019t really do that without good AI tools.<\/p>\n What\u2019s it like to run a space company in Canada?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s really, really hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada is a risk-averse culture to begin with, so when you take on an ambitious program like building a company that\u2019s going to bring things to space, you\u2019re constantly having to overcome skepticism.<\/p>\n When we started the business in 2016, I think people thought it was just completely crazy for us to do anything that resembled launching something into orbit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of that has changed. On the positive side, ambition brings the right talent around you. When you put up this broad ambition of \u2018how do we bring the internet and all the benefits of it outside of Earth,\u2019 which includes cloud computing and all sorts of access to applications, you get surrounded by people who are willing to be like-minded. They make the really, really hard part much easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why do you think this work is important?<\/p>\n During my undergrad and my master\u2019s, I built up a not-for-profit called the University of Toronto Aerospace Team, which is a group of volunteers.<\/p>\n I think it dawned on me then that we\u2019re just in a completely different era for space. Gone are the days when space was controlled by trillionaires. You don\u2019t have the Soviets and the US owning space. We, as a volunteer-based organization, could go out and reach, touch, and access space. This grew this fascination over the idea of, if space transportation is a solved problem, what\u2019s the remaining infrastructure to build a truly robust space economy? That\u2019s where the idea of Kepler came about.<\/p>\n I think about this often: why am I doing this? I reflect, and there are probably very few true impacts I could make with my lifetime, and this is one of them. I just get so excited about the concept of being able to meet the mission of this business and what that actually means for humanity at large.<\/p>\n The federal government recently introduced legislation that\u2019s intended to create a framework for Canada to launch into space. Why is it important for Canada to have sovereign launch capacity?<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s pretty long overdue; we should have had sovereign launch a while ago. Launch capacity is a huge constraint right now, globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n We have such an enormous land mass compared to any other country in the world. You want to be able to monitor that land mass. When you have such an enormous land mass, the only credible way to have a vantage point of it is through space, right?<\/p>\n We need to have that vantage point from space to be able to monitor for wildfires, monitor for defence protection, and be able to give weather updates to citizens.<\/p>\n If you want to get up into orbit right now, it\u2019s pretty hard to do before 2030, maybe later. That\u2019s a long time to wait when you know you need to monitor millions of square kilometres in the far North.\u00a0<\/p>\n Can Canada become a major space player?\u00a0<\/p>\n