US Approves Satellite With Giant Mirror to Reflect Sunlight to Earth at Night

The United States has formally approved one of the strangest space projects ever attempted: a satellite equipped with a giant mirror that is to shine “sunlight on demand” down to the Earth after dark.

California startup Reflect Orbital has been given the green light by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to put its first demonstration satellite, Eärendil-1, into low Earth orbit. The company intends to test the technology soon. If the experiment works, the company foresees a future where commercial solar farms produce electricity long after the sun has set, emergency crews have instant lighting in disaster zones and industrial sites can operate at night without the need for heavy ground infrastructure.

How it works with Moonlight by Design

The prototype satellite -- roughly the size of a standard dorm-room refrigerator -- is meant to unfurl a huge, ultra-thin sheet of reflective mylar plastic once it reaches an operational altitude of about 400 miles (640 kilometres).

The Mirror: The high-tech, square reflector is 60 feet by 60 feet (18 metres across) and features a complex origami-like folding system designed by ex-NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers.

The Beam The satellite will use a precision propulsion system to tilt the mirror to catch sunlight from the day side of the planet and then point it into a 3-mile-wide (5-kilometre) circular beam on the dark side of the Earth.

The Intensity: For this first test, the beam will shine with a low-intensity brightness similar to the glow of a bright full moon.

Reflect Orbital has big civilisational dreams, hoping to launch 1,000+ bigger satellites by 2028, eventually scaling up to a fleet of 50,000 mirrors by 2035 that could adjust brightness from “full moon to full noon".

The Scientific Backlash: “Breaking the Night Sky”

The project has gained regulatory approval but has also met a backlash from environmental groups, sleep researchers and global astronomical bodies. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has been actively lobbying the FCC to deny the licence, warning that the satellite represents a fundamentally dangerous shift from accidental space reflection to intentional light pollution.

Scientists have identified three big concerns:

Blinding the Sky: The mirror's intense glare could wash out sensitive scientific telescopes, forever streaking celestial images and severely hampering the study of faint deep space objects.

Safety Blind Spots: Critics warn the mirror repointing and off-target drift could produce sudden, intense flashes of light that could temporarily blind commercial airline pilots and nighttime motorists on the ground.

Ecological Chaos: Natural darkness is very sensitive to human biology, nocturnal animal migrations and plant flowering cycles, say circadian rhythm experts. It might be surrounded by permanent, artificial sunlight, and all life on Earth is fundamentally disrupted.

Why the FCC Approved It Anyway

Many environmentalists were stunned by the approval, but the FCC said it was legally bound to. “The commission’s primary authority is to regulate radio frequencies and manage the spectrum so the satellite’s communications do not interfere with other space assets,” the commission said.

The FCC ruled that wide-ranging concerns about sky brightness fell well outside its jurisdiction because existing U.S. space laws do not mandate comprehensive environmental or light-pollution assessments for activities in low Earth orbit. They said the technology is in the public interest because it pushes into new frontiers of clean energy.

The concept is not entirely new, of course, as Znamya-2, a 20-metre orbital mirror, was briefly tested by Russia in 1993, successfully flashing a beam of light across Europe before the project was abandoned after a later mission failure. How Eärendil-1 will behave once it unfurls will be totally how Reflect Orbital can successfully master the mechanics of orbital lighting without breaking the night sky.