The US government just said yes to a satellite whose entire job is to bounce sunlight down onto Earth after dark.
And it's only satellite number one of a planned fleet of 50,000.
Meet Eärendil-1.
Built by a California startup called Reflect Orbital.
Its mission? Turn night into day — on command.
Here's the setup.
An 18-metre by 18-metre foil mirror, unfurled in orbit 600–650 km up.
The satellite itself weighs just 142 kg.
It's basically a giant reflective kite, aimed at a patch of ground for a few minutes at a time — like a sunbeam you can order on demand.
Solar farms at midnight. Disaster zones. Stadiums.
That's the pitch.
Literally.
The American Astronomical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and DarkSky International all sounded alarms before this approval even landed.
Their warnings:
And here's the number that should stop you.
If Reflect Orbital actually launches all 50,000 planned mirrors by 2035...
the night sky could get 3 to 4 times brighter overall.
Not just near the mirrors. Everywhere.
The FCC approved it anyway.
Not because it disagreed with the astronomers.
Because it says impacts on optical astronomy simply fall outside its jurisdiction.
Translation: not our department.
So the agency that licenses the satellite has no formal say over what that satellite does to the sky.
We spent decades building telescopes to look up and understand the universe.
Now we're about to launch tens of thousands of objects designed to light that same sky up on purpose.
One startup's brilliant idea.
Everyone else's permanent 3am glow.
That's all for now!
