FCC approves orbital space mirrors
July 15, 2026
The FCC has given its approval to launch giant space mirrors into orbit. These large spacecraft can reflect sunlight to Earth’s surface for construction sites, search-and-rescue lighting, and more. The company behind the project wants to launch 50,000 of these space mirrors.
Reflect Orbital, a California startup that markets itself as The Sunlight Company and aims to make “clean, abundant energy available on demand,” has just received approval from the FCC to launch the Eärendil-1, its test craft.
According to reports this first flight is a low-earth orbit satellite equipped with four 18-meter (~60ft) thin-film reflectors designed to reflect sunlight on specific areas on Earth. This deployment will test the spacecraft’s capabilities in extending daylight for several minutes, which can be used from lighting construction sites and search-and-rescue operations to increasing solar farm energy production.
“We’re grateful to the FCC for recognizing the importance of testing novel technologies in space,” Ben Nowack, chief executive of Reflect Orbital, said in a statement. “This license is the first step toward rigorously testing our technology’s efficacy and the safeguards we have developed.” While the company envisions launching two satellites into space this year, it says on its website that it wants to deploy more than 50,000 satellites by 2035, allowing it to provide “up to 36,000 lux for hours comparable to daylight” or “up to 100 lux 24/7 comparable to indoor working areas.”
But the project is not without critics. Astronomers from across the world have complained, saying it would make it harder to observe the night sky and could even be dangerous to sensitive instruments and people using telescopes. The Chief Scientist of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Tony Tyson, said that this plan to light up the ground using orbital mirrors was “even crazier” than the Starlink satellite constellations that have been affecting nighttime observations. The European Southern Observatory (ESO), which operates several telescopes in the Chilean desert, said that Reflect Orbital’s full deployment “would increase the background sky brightness at its facilities by a factor of three to four, limiting the ability of telescopes to detect faint objects.”
The FCC says that the complaints should go to the agencies that look after space and astronomy. But even if the FCC had authority over the issues raised by its critics, it seems that the project will still push through as it considers that “…it is in the public interest to make spectrum available to encourage companies to test new and innovative space activities, as it promotes American innovation and the new services and economic growth that come from that
Other posts by :