Overview
- The Federal Communications Commission has cleared Reflect Orbital to launch and operate radio communications for Earendil-1, the company’s first demonstration satellite.
- Reflect Orbital says Earendil-1 will deploy an 18-by-18 metre thin-film reflector at about 625 kilometres altitude to briefly illuminate roughly a five-kilometre-wide patch of ground for minutes.
- The company envisions scaling the service to as many as 50,000 orbital mirrors by 2035 and plans to sell time-limited illumination to clients at roughly €5,000 per hour, which it says has drawn strong interest.
- Major astronomy bodies objected to the project and an ESO-led study estimated the planned fleet would increase night-sky brightness three to four times, threatening the detection of faint objects and the tracking of near-Earth asteroids.
- Space-safety experts warn mirrors could raise collision and debris risks in an already crowded low Earth orbit while the FCC says its remit is limited to spectrum and debris issues and broader regulation remains unresolved; Reflect Orbital says it is pursuing steerable reflectors, exclusion zones for observatories and talks with scientists and the NSF.