Assessing Astronomical Impacts of Reflect Orbital’s Proposed Satellite System

This survey is being conducted by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to gather input from astronomers, observatories, and night sky users worldwide regarding the potential impacts of Reflect Orbital’s proposed reflector satellites on astronomical research and night sky visibility. Reflect Orbital is a satellite company that plans to deliver reflected sunlight at night by building a constellation of reflectors in low Earth orbit. Each satellite is expected to reflect ~0.8 lux (4-5x the brightness of the full Moon) to a ~5 km diameter beam on Earth's surface. The company has recently requested authorization from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch their first satellite (with a size of 18 x 18 m) in 2026. Reflect Orbital intends to launch dozens more within the next two years, and 4000 satellites by 2030, with the goal of increasing daylight by 4 hours each day where they are providing service, and potentially even providing continuous service to some locations. Reflect Orbital states that it will provide light exclusively to paying customers and will re-orient its mirrors away from Earth when not in use. We are seeking to understand the potential impacts to our community, both from intended and unintended reflections from such satellites, including if such re-orientation is not executed. This form will take about 5 minutes to complete. We are collecting geographic and observational context to understand aggregate patterns of potential impact. Any and all information you can provide is useful. Optional personal identifiers (i.e., name and email address) will be kept confidential and will only be used by the AAS policy team to contact you if we have any follow-up questions about your form responses. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the AAS public policy team ([email protected]). Thank you for your time and support.