A startup company caused consternation in a small California town when residents were startled to see a dazzling light shining down from a nearby mountain at night. The light illuminated a swath of the desert below in an unearthly glow.
The startup, Reflect Orbital, was carrying out a demonstration of a technology it hopes will literally turn night into day. The company plans to launch 50,000 satellites into space in the next decade to light up parts of the planet at night.
JUST IN: A California space startup has illuminated a section of desert near Mount Whitney at night, demonstrating how future satellites could deliver sunlight to Earth on demand. Reflect Orbital conducted the October 10 test using powerful ground-based spotlights to simulate sunlight redirected from orbit by large reflective mirrors. Working with China Lake Mountain Rescue, the company illuminated terrain across roughly three miles, allowing rescue teams to conduct nighttime searches, stretcher carries and other emergency-response exercises. Reflect Orbital ultimately wants to deploy satellites capable of directing sunlight toward specific areas on Earth after sunset, potentially supporting emergency operations and extending electricity generation at solar farms. The company received FCC authorization in July for its first experimental satellite, Eärendil-1, which will use an 18-meter reflector to test the concept from orbit. The October demonstration used ground-based lighting. No orbital mirror has yet demonstrated the proposed capability.
— Outer Space Today (@outerspacetoday) October 20, 2026
"In July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Reflect Orbital’s proposal to launch an initial demonstration satellite next year, which will orbit the Earth and, via a 59ft-diameter mirror, reflect sunlight in 3-mile-wide beams in strengths from moonlight up to the brightness of the sun at noon," reports The Guardian.
Reflect Orbital plans to "sell" sunlight at night through an app on your phone.
This satellite company wants to sell sunlight—at night. Meet Reflect Orbital. They are developing a constellation of satellites to sell sunlight to thousands of solar farms—after dark. “We think sunlight is the new oil and space is ready” https://t.co/MYfNyLujcB
— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) August 23, 2024
Needless to say, the scheme has elicited fierce opposition from many groups: astronomers, who fear ridding the Earth of night will make ground-based observations impossible; environmentalists, who fear hundreds of species that depend on the change from day to night would die out; medical professionals, who fear human health would suffer due to a disruption of circadian rhythms; ethicists, who question using the technology without telling people; and the climate change crowd, who want no effort made to keep us from destroying ourselves.
“Global warming is happening because the Earth has a radiative imbalance due to the massive amounts of greenhouse gases we’ve dumped into the atmosphere,” said David Ho, a climate scientist at the University of Hawaii.
“Some people are promoting the already unhinged idea of installing space mirrors facing away from the Earth to reflect the sun’s energy in order to decrease global warming. Imagine wanting to turn those mirrors around so that the Earth gets hotter.”
Huh? Who would want to do that, and why should we imagine it?
Dr. Ho is grasping at straws to find something to oppose the project. He’s confusing this project with a completely unrelated idea to use mirrors to reflect the sun’s energy back into space. Reflect Orbital’s plan would do no such thing.
Why turn night into day anyway?
This provided, the company said, a realistic simulation of one of the benefits of this technology: to help search-and-rescue teams and other emergency responders at night. Other planned uses include bathing crops in sunlight, replacing broken streetlights and even providing solar power for military operations, all summoned by the tap of a button on an app.
“Search-and-rescue teams are expected to be our first customers, so this was a real-world test conducted alongside teams who would use our technology,” said a spokesperson for Reflect Orbital, which partnered with a local search-and-rescue team for the demonstration.
Sorry, I don't buy it. Others are even more opposed.
“This is an idiotic project,” said Jan Hasselman, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental group. “There are a huge number of unresolved questions and significant potential impacts. Literally all of life on Earth evolved based on the rhythm of day and night and there is a ton of data showing that messing with this is not a good idea.”
“There needs to be some sort of discussion and analysis before we grant these people the right to fundamentally alter the night sky,” he added. “The proposal for 50,000 of these satellite mirrors is crazy and would really end the night sky as we know it.”
Elon Musk's Starlink service plans to have 42,000 satellites in orbit eventually. SpaceX is planning one million data centers in orbit.
Space is extraordinarily vast, but light pollution and the density of satellite constellations would make it nearly impossible to image the universe from the ground. There's also the issue of the pollution caused by thousands of launches and satellites falling back to Earth. It may not be a problem, but we don't know that, and further study is needed.
Selling sunlight seems greedy. Perhaps we should draw a line here. After all, just because we can accomplish something doesn't mean we should do it.
