The Night Is Not For Sale
A private US company now holds a licence for the first satellite designed to reflect sunlight down to Earth after dark. It was approved as a radio transmitter — with no review of what the mirror does to the night sky. That sky is billions of years old and belongs to everyone. It should not be sold, and it should not be waved through unexamined.
Reflect Orbital, a California start-up, wants to sell "sunlight on demand" — satellites carrying large mirrors that reflect sunlight down to chosen places on Earth after dark. On 9 July 2026 the US Federal Communications Commission granted its first demonstration satellite, Earendil-1, a licence to operate.12
But the FCC approved only the satellite's radio equipment. It ruled that the mirror itself — and everything it does to the night sky — falls outside its authority, so no federal body reviewed the environmental impact at all.2 The approval covers a single test satellite; it does not authorise the constellation the company ultimately wants.34
The dark sky has guided navigation, culture and science for as long as humans have looked up. Turning it into something a company switches on for paying customers crosses a line we cannot uncross.
Reflections brighten the sky and spoil observation from the ground. ESO's simulations suggest a full constellation could make the night sky three to four times brighter; astronomers' bodies, including the American Astronomical Society, formally opposed the licence.21
Even faint light at night disrupts migration, feeding and breeding across hundreds of species — insects, birds, bats — many of which navigate by the real stars. A new source from orbit adds a stressor that has never been assessed.
Artificial light at night can affect melatonin and the body clock — but that depends on intensity, spectrum, timing and duration, and the effect of short, moving, sunlight-spectrum light from orbit has never been independently studied. The American Astronomical Society warned the system could present a risk of eye damage when the reflection is viewed through binoculars or telescopes, and raised concerns about temporary flash-blindness for pilots and drivers; the company itself acknowledged the eye-damage risk.1
Almost no one — not for this. The FCC handled Earendil-1 as a radio matter, not a mirror. Internationally, the ITU has binding authority but only over radio frequencies, not light. The UN committee on outer space (COPUOS) has discussed "dark and quiet skies" since 2022, but it works by consensus and has no power to enforce anything on optical effects.8
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty asks states to act with "due regard" and avoid "harmful interference" — but those principles are vague, unenforceable, and written when satellites numbered in the hundreds and were run by governments, not start-ups.8 So a technology that changes the sky for everyone can be cleared by a single country, under rules never designed for it. That gap — not one company — is the real problem.
The FCC licensed Earendil-1 by treating it as communications equipment — which let it set aside roughly 2,000 objections and a formal protest from astronomers, without ever examining what the mirror does to the sky.21
One national regulator has, in effect, made a decision that touches the night over France, the United Kingdom and the entire planet — and the people under that sky had no say. This is no longer about one launch; it is about whether an entire industry gets to switch on the sky. What belongs to everyone cannot be decided by a single company and a single national regulator. The moment for international scrutiny and a proper environmental review is now — not after 50,000 mirrors are flying.
Add your name to the international petition and send it to three people who look up. Sign on change.org →
Ask the Government and the UK Space Agency to state their position and raise orbital illumination internationally. Find your MP at writetothem.com → — use the letter below.
Demandez la position du gouvernement et du CNES, et une évaluation avant tout déploiement. Trouvez votre député sur assemblee-nationale.fr → — utilisez la lettre ci-dessous.
Contact a journalist, post the facts, or bring it to your local astronomy society. The more people who know, the harder this is to wave through quietly.
This is not one citizen's opinion. Scientific and dark-sky organisations have publicly opposed or questioned orbital illumination:
The Night Is Not For Sale