Since the first human looked upward and found meaning in the dark, the night sky has belonged to everyone — to the migrating bird, the rural stargazer, the child learning the constellations. Now a company called Reflect Orbital proposes to lease that shared inheritance back to paying customers, launching constellations of giant orbital mirrors to beam sunlight onto Earth after dark. A peer-reviewed study has quantified the cost: a single 54-metre satellite would blaze four times brighter than the full moon, casting a glow visible across 30 kilometres, while regulators approve the first test sa
Study quantifies severe light pollution from proposed orbital mirror constellation
Migrating birds and nocturnal animals whose behaviour is calibrated to darkness would be severely impacted; rural communities and amateur astronomers seeking dark skies would lose access to natural night environments.