Reflect Orbital wants to sell sunlight via volleyball-court mirrors on satellites
kyliebytes · x · 2026-09-11
Core Memory published a deep dive on Reflect Orbital, the startup aiming to sell sunlight to places that lack it.
- Founders Ben Nowack (CEO) and Tristan Semmelhack (CPO), both in their twenties, are based in Hawthorne, CA, awaiting a Falcon 9 rideshare launch of their first test satellite
- Key engineering challenge: unfurling a volleyball-court-sized mirror from a satellite smaller than a mini fridge; candidates were once vetted by folding paper cranes
- A stitched fabric-tile reflector was scrapped as too complex and costly after four years of prototyping
- Business model: selling extra daylight to regions with insufficient or ill-timed sunlight
Related event: Reflect Orbital Plans to Sell Sunlight via Satellite Mirrors(3 posts)→
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