No More Night? FCC Approves Reflect Orbital's Space Mirror
Ever wanted to turn off the night with a swipe on your phone? Well, regulators just took the first step toward making our sky a giant, un-closable pop-up ad.
The FCC officially greenlit an experimental application by California startup Reflect Orbital to launch and operate the Eärendil-1 satellite. What makes this weird is that this agency usually spends its time managing radio frequencies, not regulating orbital nightlights.
This orbital prototype features an 18-by-18-meter ultra-thin reflective mirror designed to catch sunlight and bounce it down to Earth during the dark hours. The target is to illuminate a 5-kilometer-wide spot on the ground, providing power to solar farms after dusk or lighting up disaster zones.
While the startup is celebrating, the American Astronomical Society is panicking about potential eye damage to amateur astronomers and the temporary blinding of pilots and drivers. Critics argue that adding light to the night sky will ruin scientific research, but the regulator brushed this off by pointing out that this license is only for one test satellite, not the 50,000-satellite mega-constellation planned by 2035.
The company has been taking pre-orders for "light on demand" since mid-2024, promising users they can eventually pinpoint a beam of sunshine using a smartphone app. The launch is scheduled for late this year.
Because nothing says peak humanity like paying a tech startup to delete the stars just so someone can charge their solar-powered electric scooter at 3 AM. It is only a matter of time before companies start drawing glowing logos in the sky for premium subscribers.
Source: PCMag
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