Adapted by:
Matías S. Zavia
WriterAerospace and energy industries journalist at Xataka.
Karen Alfaro
WriterCommunications professional with a decade of experience as a copywriter, proofreader, and editor. As a travel and science journalist, I've collaborated with several print and digital outlets around the world. I'm passionate about culture, music, food, history, and innovative technologies.
Imagine having the power to cancel nighttime in a certain part of the world, reflect sunlight from space to illuminate a specific area, and make it daytime. How would you use it?
Reflect Orbital. This California-based company wants to harness that power to illuminate photovoltaic panels during sunrise and sunset, when renewable energy is most needed. Energy companies could then sell it at the highest price.
Reflect Orbital just received $20 million in funding to deploy a constellation of satellites equipped with giant mirrors. The goal is to reflect sunlight to Earth on demand.
Sunshine on demand. The concept is simple: increase solar energy production on Earth by directing sunlight to large photovoltaic plants before sunrise and after sunset.
Similar to space solar stations—but without the complications of concentrating energy into a laser or microwave beam—placing large mirrors in orbit would significantly increase the light a solar farm receives. This would help solve one of solar energy’s major drawbacks: its intermittency.
The company already tested a mirror on a hot air balloon nearly 1.9 miles above a solar farm. These tests generated 500 watts of energy from 10.8 square feet of photovoltaic panels, with about half the sun’s normal brightness.
Suns were the first demonstration. Reflect Orbital’s first mission is scheduled for spring 2026. It will test a 60-by-60-foot mirror made of Mylar plastic stretched to form a solid reflective surface.
The mission expects to reach a brightness of 0.1 lux, comparable to the light of a full moon on a clear night. It aims to illuminate 10 iconic locations at night to generate publicity and public interest.
This is an ambitious goal. The initial idea involves a constellation of 57 small satellites in a polar sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 370 miles. These satellites would provide photovoltaic plants with an additional 30 minutes of sunlight.
In the long term, Reflect Orbital plans to launch a constellation of thousands of satellites with much larger reflectors, measuring up to 180 by 180 feet. At that scale, the constellation’s total brightness would be comparable to sunlight at midday.
Other applications. While the company’s ultimate goal is to promote solar energy, it plans to generate revenue in the short and medium term through other services. Since its founding in 2021, the company has received more than 260,000 requests from 157 countries for its sunlight delivery service.
Future offerings will include lighting for nighttime construction projects, public events, disaster relief efforts, and defense operations. “We want to make it as easy as possible—like, log into a website, tell us your GPS coordinates and we get you some sunlight after dark,” Reflect Orbital CEO Ben Nowack said. Science fiction made real.
Image | Reflect Orbital
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