If I told you that you could get a ray of sunlight in the middle of the night, you might think I was still half-asleep.
In fact, this quirky idea seems to be one step closer to reality.

SUNLIGHT CORP
Recently, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application from a startup called Reflect Orbital to build and launch “reflective satellites”.
It is reported that the company plans to equip the satellite with an 18-meter-wide Mylar mirror, which will reflect sunlight in low Earth orbit, eventually illuminating a ground area with a diameter of 5 to 6 kilometers for several minutes.
This is only the first step in the company’s vision plan.

More than 50,000 mirrors will be sent into space
If the test is successful, Reflect Orbital hopes to launch another 1,000 satellite mirrors by the end of 2028, reaching a total of 50,000 by 2035. The largest mirror can be 55 meters (180 feet) wide, reflecting light equivalent to 100 full moons.
The company plans to sell reflected sunlight to enterprises and municipal departments at a price of up to 5,000 US dollars per hour, for “power-free illumination” of streets and communities, and to supplement power generation for solar power stations after dark.
The first three test reflectors will be launched once every three months, and CEO Ben Nowack said these three will also be used as revenue-generating tools.

NIGHT INTO DAY
To enhance public awareness, Reflect Orbital’s official website has also launched a simulation tool, through which ordinary people can intuitively see the working effect of the satellites and the scene where the night areas of the Earth are illuminated as bright as daytime.
The company claims: “The light reflected by the satellites is soft and diffused, and the lighting environment is almost no different from natural sunlight. This technology is not concentrated solar power generation, does not use lasers, and does not require artificial light sources.”
It also emphasizes that the original intention of the enterprise is “to make space sunlight reflection technology an important part of humanity’s future clean energy, while providing critical lighting at night to save lives.”

Nighttime solar power is really a wild idea
Its ambition in the clean energy sector is particularly aggressive. Reflect Orbital says this solution is compatible with existing solar supporting facilities, so solar panels, inverters, grid-connected capacity and land resources can be used more efficiently.
In fact, it is hinting to everyone that in the future, the night can be as bright as the day in designated areas. How bright? Bright enough to directly generate solar power!
This idea is indeed a bit wild, but as early as two years ago, this company entered the public view with a more eye-catching slogan.

“Can you order original sunlight at night?” —— Focusing on the subscription model, it quickly became popular on the Internet in 2024.
Coupled with the proof-of-concept video of a hot air balloon reflecting sunlight over the California desert, many netizens feel that in the future, they can really buy sunlight like ordering takeout.

Eventually, the demo video got more than 55 million views, and the company received a total of 260,000 “sunlight reservation” applications from 157 countries.
After becoming popular on social media, there were also more jokes: in the future, rich people can enjoy 24-hour sunbathing, and bosses can also make you work 24 hours without rest.

The reflective panels to be used in this launch
Of course, many netizens also think it is not very practical. Isn’t it essentially all sunlight?
How come it becomes more advanced just by being reflected by satellites?
As recorded at the beginning of Mr. Bean, there is nothing to be so proud of.

How far did Mr. Bean see in the show…
So after getting official approval two years later, Reflect Orbital is also trying to tell more “new stories”.
Public opinion has begun to lay out a “one superpower with multiple strong points”, focusing on “reflected solar power generation” and “extended power generation”, supplemented by various regional sunlight services.
It is no longer the romanticized narrative of “everyone can order sunlight” as in 2024.

The name of the first reflective satellite comes from a character in *The Lord of the Rings*
Technically, the founder said that the weight of a single reflective panel has been reduced to 500 grams, with a thickness of only 15,000 atoms — much thinner than a human hair.
He also revealed that the prototype satellite costs about 2 million US dollars, and the cost target for mass-produced units in the future can be reduced to about 300,000 US dollars per unit.
Even so, overwhelming opposition came first.

The European Southern Observatory stated in a statement on July 1 that if the full constellation of 50,000 satellites is completed, it will increase the background sky brightness of its Chilean facility by 3 to 4 times, which will significantly limit the ability of telescopes to detect faint celestial objects.
Experts from the Center for Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Research at Northwestern University warned that such an increase in nighttime artificial light may disrupt sleep, circadian rhythms and seasonal biological cycles, and the intensity of reflected light may reach the level of sunlight, covering the entire city.

The company’s public relations statement on adjusting the reflection angle on its official website is a bit weak
Many astronomy experts said that if the plan is implemented and completed, it will be “crazier” than the broadband satellite constellations that astronomers have worried about for many years. Can you imagine that the sky is full of moons?
In the end, during the FCC review period alone, organizations led by DarkSky International submitted more than 2,000 objections in total.

Jointly submit objections directly
Even with such fierce opposition, the FCC still issued the approval, but the reason behind it may be heartwarming:
It feels that the plan will not be successful in the end, but it won’t hurt to let you try it.
Because after sorting through a lot of official data and analysis documents.
This matter is indeed more like just for fun.
Many people will say that Reflect Orbital received a $6.5 million seed round led by HSG in 2024 (Series A raised $20 million).
This is also the first space investment for HSG since it invested in SpaceX in 2020, indicating that at least serious institutional investors are willing to bet on it, with endorsement support.
However, no one tells you that even though HSG investor Shaun Maguire publicly said he thought this idea “might really work”, this is more of an investment judgment, not technical verification.

Investor: “Reflect Orbital has many skeptics and haters”
After all, compared with venture capital projects that cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, these millions of dollars are more like “buying a possibility”.
Of course, it doesn’t mean this is a pure scam company or scam project. Just like only talking about toxicity without mentioning the dose, theoretically feasible does not mean commercial implementation is possible.
A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow in the UK published an independent computer simulation study as early as 2024.

Kilometer-scale reflective mirrors
It demonstrated that when 20 kilometer-scale mirrors are in 1000km orbit, they can theoretically provide solar power stations with about 2 hours of extra sunlight per day.
Although this matter has scientific support for being “physically feasible”, the “kilometer-scale” mirrors used in scientific simulations are far different from Reflect Orbital’s current stage, and even its future “thousand-mirror plan”.
Similarly, Monash University in Australia has also done a specific calculation.

Since Reflect Orbital’s goal is to provide solar power stations with 200 watts of light per square meter, which is equivalent
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