Vera C. Rubin Observatory<\/a> in Chile to cope with the light streaks left by overhead satellites.<\/p>\nThose streaks can mess with searches for transiting exoplanets, the mysterious sources of gravitational waves, objects in and beyond the distant Kuiper Belt and asteroids that could cross paths with Earth. Satellites in low-Earth orbit, including SpaceX\u2019s Starlink constellations, are mainly visible just before sunrise and after sunset; that\u2019s prime time for many types of astronomical observations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most frustrating parts about it is you won\u2019t know what you didn\u2019t discover,\u201d says Rawls, of the University of Washington in Seattle. \u201cWe can\u2019t know what we didn\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The space community is also alarmed by the growing potential for orbiting objects to crash into each other, hurtling space junk toward Earth or creating an unnavigable debris field around the planet. Most commercial satellites have thrusters to avoid such collisions. But the proliferation of objects means those satellites are engaging thrusters frequently, sometimes weekly. Scientists wonder what will happen when they fail.<\/p>\n
And there is a growing concern about the potentially hazardous residue such satellites could leave in the atmosphere when they de-orbit. \u201cWe are now using space as a species at an unprecedented level,\u201d McDowell says. \u201cA lot of effects that were previously trivial are now no longer trivial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Space scientists, amateur astronomers, Indigenous peoples and many others are mourning the night sky as it has existed for millennia\u2009\u2014\u2009or soon will be. \u201cThis represents far more than mere loss of environment,\u201d wrote astronomers Aparna Venkatesan of the University of San Francisco and John Barentine, cofounder of the Center for Space Environmentalism, in 2023 in Science<\/em>. \u201cWe are witnessing loss of heritage, place-based language, identity, storytelling, millennia-old sky traditions and our ability to conduct traditional practices grounded in the ecological integrity of what we call home.\u201d The pair proposed a term for \u201csky grief\u201d: noctalgia<\/em>.<\/p>\nThat grief could grow as companies put ever more satellites into space. SpaceX alone plans to launch one million as part of orbiting data centers starting in late 2027. Other companies and countries, including China\u2019s space agency, plan to launch hundreds of thousands more. Even if not all of them get off the ground, the number of fake stars in a dark night sky could rival the number of visible real ones by 2030, McDowell says.<\/p>\n
Mirrors in the sky<\/h2>\n Reflect Orbital\u2019s satellite, named E\u00e4rendil-1, is an 18-by-18-meter sheet of reflective material that will fold up for launch and unfurl in space. Motors will maneuver it to bounce light in any direction the company desires. It will orbit 600 to 650 kilometers high, a popular altitude for commercial satellites. E\u00e4rendil-1 will be able to shine light on a spot about five kilometers wide, making it as bright as if a full moon were overhead. The mirror will move at about 7.5 kilometers per second, meaning it will illuminate the same spot on the ground for four minutes before disappearing over the horizon.<\/p>\nThe light-reflecting satellite E\u00e4rendil-1 orbits Earth in this photo illustration.<\/span>Reflect Orbital<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cOur first demonstration mission will enable Reflect Orbital to test the operation of a commercially built spacecraft and deployable reflector, including the built-in safeguards governing precisely how, where and when the service is delivered,\u201d Buscombe told Science News<\/em>. \u201cThe mission will provide real-world data that shapes the design of future satellites, the markets we serve, how we engage communities and the operational practices we put in place. We expect this to be the first of several test missions.\u201d<\/p>\nThis isn\u2019t the first time such a scheme has been proposed or even attempted. In the 1960s, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense ran a study called Project Able to determine the feasibility of putting a 600-meter-wide mirror into a geosynchronous orbit 36,000\u00a0kilometers above Earth. One of the motivations was to light the sky over Vietnam to aid combat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say history doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it does rhyme,\u201d says Lisa Ruth Rand, a California-based space historian who is writing a book about waste in Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n
Practicalities and cost meant the mirror never got off the ground. But in 1993, the Russian space agency deployed a 20-meter space mirror that swept a spot of light across Europe. The project sought to show the feasibility of lighting up Siberia during long winter nights. Though the beam was mostly blocked by clouds, astronauts aboard the Mir space station filmed the event.<\/p>\n
Reflect Orbital says its spotlight will be fully controllable and can be turned off in an instant by tilting the mirror away from Earth. Outside the beam, the light will look like just another star, according to Buscombe. And it shouldn\u2019t shine on places where no one ordered it.<\/p>\n
Space scientists aren\u2019t so sure. As light travels from space to the ground, it scatters off molecules in the atmosphere, says astrophysicist Gaspar Bakos of Princeton University. \u201cThat is why the sky is blue, why we see the clouds,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Bakos and colleagues ran computer simulations of the light from a Reflect Orbital satellite overhead under various conditions. Between scattering in the atmosphere and reflections from the ground, E\u00e4rendil-1\u2019s beam could appear as a hazy chimney on the horizon from as far as 14\u00a0kilometers away, the team reported in a paper posted in August on arXiv.org.<\/p>\n
Only one satellite is cleared for operations, Reflect Orbital and the FCC note. But critics worry that there\u2019s nothing in the licensing logic that would stand in the way of more. If the test is successful, Reflect Orbital says it wants to launch 5,000 mirrors by 2030 and 50,000 by 2035. They would be larger, about 54\u00a0meters across. Light from such a mirror could brighten the night sky to as much as four full moons. Arranged in a chain, they would keep the lights on longer, because a new mirror would come into view just as an old one sets.<\/p>\nReflect Orbital\u2019s satellites will work by reflecting sunlight (orange lines) onto a particular spot on Earth. Scientists worry that atmospheric scattering will spread the light much farther (gray semicircle).<\/span>O.R. Hainaut\/Astronomy Astrophysics 2026, Adapted by B. Price<\/span>Reflect Orbital\u2019s satellites will work by reflecting sunlight (orange lines) onto a particular spot on Earth. Scientists worry that atmospheric scattering will spread the light much farther (gray semicircle).<\/span>O.R. Hainaut\/Astronomy Astrophysics 2026, Adapted by B. Price<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s quite a dance, if you think about it,\u201d Hummel says. \u201cA lot of things need to move very accurately in order to provide the levels of illumination that they\u2019re claiming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within the beam, you\u2019d see no stars. The effect outside the beam would vary depending on distance and existing levels of light pollution. In a dark area, one 54-meter satellite would leave a concentrated glow that outshines the full moon from more than 30\u00a0kilometers away, Bakos and colleagues calculate. Even a person in an average suburb could see the beam from 20\u00a0kilometers away, Bakos says. For astronomers, the beam would be disruptive from up to 100 kilometers away.<\/p>\n
Barentine, who is based in Tucson, has seen renderings of the simulations. \u201cThe only word I can think of to describe what they look like is horrifying,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you are within a few kilometers of a beam, it looks like the mother ship is landing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the McDonald Observatory is preparing for E\u00e4rendil-1 by developing tools to track and avoid the satellite\u2019s path, Hummel says. Staff plan to pause telescope observing as needed. Seeing the beam through a moderate-sized telescope could damage observers\u2019 eyes or harm research equipment, he and others assert.<\/p>\n
Reflect Orbital counters that the risk of eye damage is extremely low, and that even intentionally tracking the satellite for 100 seconds through a 12-inch diameter telescope would stay within international eye-safety limits.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s planned fleet could change the night sky dramatically, adding several hundred objects as bright as Venus by 2035, Munich-based astronomer Olivier Hainaut of the European Southern Observatory reported in August in Astronomy Astrophysics<\/em>. Because of light scattering, the full fleet could make the night sky three or four times as bright as it already is anywhere within a few hundred kilometers of the beam, Hainaut concludes. That would make skies at even the darkest sites appear more like those in the suburbs.<\/p>\nReflect Orbital disputes those findings as well as Bakos\u2019.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just astronomers who are concerned. Glints from rotating satellites could distract pilots or drivers. Nighttime light can also disrupt circadian rhythms, the behavior of nocturnal animals, and migration patterns of birds and insects.<\/p>\n
The effects of one intermittent beam are unclear, says biologist Brett Seymoure of the University of Texas at El Paso. \u201cIf it\u2019s a few days a year, is that going to have a big effect? Probably not. But we don\u2019t know.\u201d More troubling is the idea of permanently lighting up the night sky, which could alter critical ecosystem services, Seymoure says. \u201cIt\u2019s an existential crisis for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflect Orbital says it will maintain strict exclusion zones for astronomy and sensitive environments, which the company is developing with the National Science Foundation. It plans to adjust the exclusion zones based on the satellites\u2019 actual brightness post-launch. \u201cWe are committed to ongoing dialogue with scientists, astronomers, environmental researchers and other interested stakeholders,\u201d Buscombe told Science News<\/em>.<\/p>\nFighting back<\/h2>\n Previous efforts to block satellites have relied on arguments about orbital debris and the environmental impact of light pollution. DarkSky International, for instance, challenged an FCC decision that granted SpaceX a license for its second-gen Starlink satellites in 2023, arguing the agency should have required an environmental review. DarkSky lost.<\/p>\n
Typically, government-approved projects are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental impact assessments. But since 1986, the FCC has said that most of its activities are excluded from the act because space is outside of Earth\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n
The FCC\u2019s stance isn\u2019t likely to change. In 2025, President Trump directed federal agencies to revise their environmental review processes to \u201cprioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives.\u201d FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has announced plans to speed the satellite application process by creating a \u201clicensing assembly line\u201d and to clarify that FCC\u2019s space-related activities don\u2019t require environmental review.<\/p>\n
But if the FCC won\u2019t consider the environmental impact of satellite operations, critics ask, who will? It \u201cbecomes this buck passing thing,\u201d Barentine says. \u201cThe FAA says we find nothing wrong with your launch, the FCC says we find nothing wrong with your radio communications, and there\u2019s nothing to check the environmental impacts.\u201d The FCC did not respond on the record to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Mirrors designed to send light to Earth might change the legal landscape, Barentine says. If an individual gets hurt by looking at the mirror through a telescope, that individual could have the right to sue in court. That\u2019s not an ideal strategy for policy making, he says, because \u201cwe might actually have to wait for something to happen, for somebody to be injured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scattered light also could count as a public nuisance, depending on where it shines, Zartner says. If it spills over an international border, Reflect Orbital or even the United States could be liable for any harm done in another nation\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n
Simply by being so visible, Reflect Orbital\u2019s satellites could bring wider awareness of the concerns over space crowding. \u201cSatellites up in the air are so intangible for most people,\u201d Zartner says. \u201cFor the law, you need something tangible. To get support, you need something that people can see and latch onto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zartner, Barentine and Venkatesan have outlined legal strategies to protect the darkness, drawing on individual rights, community rights and the rights of nature. Though those efforts haven\u2019t succeeded to date, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that will be the case forever,\u201d Venkatesan says. \u201cWe have to keep trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
What follows depends on how the public and policy makers respond. Could they be moved to action by sunbeams at night? Or are people already too acclimated to starless, satellite-filled skies? Spotting artificial objects in space has become a pastime in its own right.<\/p>\n
What comes of this moment could determine what future generations experience when they look to the night sky. In one possible future, there\u2019s a sense of awe for ancient celestial phenomena, their light traveling hundreds or thousands of light-years. In another, we may look up and applaud only the stuff we made and sent up ourselves.<\/p>\n
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