FCC approves space mirror for Reflect Orbital’s Earendil-1, a single demonstration satellite in low-Earth orbit with a steerable 60 feet by 60 feet reflector. The plan is to test whether sunlight can be aimed back to Earth after dark. That puts a new light source on the table for rescue work, solar farms, and night skies already under pressure.
Earendil-1 in low-Earth orbit
On Thursday, the FCC granted Reflect Orbital permission to launch and operate Earendil-1 using the requested radio spectrum. The approval covers only one satellite, and the reflected light is supposed to span about 3 miles on the ground.
That scale is small compared with the company’s longer-range plan. Reflect Orbital envisions operating over 50,000 satellites by 2035.
American Astronomical Society objections
The FCC received over 1,800 public comments on the application. The American Astronomical Society said the application raised a risk of “potential for eye damage to amateur astronomers looking through reasonably sized telescopes; temporary ‘flash blinding’ of drivers and pilots; and negative impacts on the scientific research, being carried out by federally funded astronomical facilities”.
Those objections matter because Earendil-1 is not just a radio-spectrum filing. It is a test of a reflector meant to push sunlight back to Earth after dark, with Reflect Orbital saying the same idea could illuminate disaster-struck areas or power solar farms at night.
Reflect Orbital and the FCC
The FCC described the grant as support for a single demonstration satellite to test an innovative technology. It also said the concerns around the solar reflector are unrelated to its role in authorizing use of radiofrequency spectrum.
The practical question now is not whether Reflect Orbital can describe the concept. It is whether Earendil-1 can put a 60 feet by 60 feet thin-film reflector to work without turning night operations into a brighter problem for drivers, pilots, and astronomers.
The approval gives Reflect Orbital a path to test the hardware, but it does not settle the wider question of how a system built around one satellite could scale to 50,000 by 2035 without forcing the same light-pollution fight to repeat on a much larger stage.
