PEER, DarkSky International, the American Bird Conservancy, and Environment America — represented by Earthjustice — filed a formal Application for Review asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse its Space Bureau’s approval of Reflect Orbital Inc.’s Earendil-1 satellite.

Earendil-1 is a commercial satellite that will reflect sunlight back to Earth at night.

The Space Bureau granted Reflect Orbital’s application on July 9, 2026, finding it served the public interest and fell outside the environmental review requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — the federal law requiring agencies to study the environmental effects of major actions on the United States before granting approval.

Selling Sunlight After Dark

Reflect Orbital’s business model is to sell sunlight at night for uses such as replacing streetlights, extending outdoor work hours, and powering solar arrays. To do this, Earendil-1 will unfold a mirror roughly a tenth of an acre wide at 600–650 km altitude and steer reflected sunlight to chosen spots on the ground. A single Earendil-1 satellite is expected to project a beam roughly 5 km (over 3 miles) wide as it sweeps the ground, with scattered light extending further still.

Although Reflect Orbital’s FCC application covers only this one satellite, the company has called this a “crucial testbed” for a much larger operation, with publicly stated plans to scale up to 50,000 satellites by 2035.

Why This is a Problem

In March, PEER and other groups filed comments with the FCC opposing Reflect Orbital’s original application for approval. In last week’s Application for Review, the groups say the Bureau didn’t adequately address a number of issues, including:

• Eye damage — a DarkSky technical report found the reflected light could be intense enough to injure eyes faster than a person could blink or look away.
• Astronomy disruption — the American Astronomical Society warned that even one pass could saturate telescope detectors and cost extended observing time; roughly 80% of astronomers surveyed in 2025 expected satellite constellations like this one to affect their work.
• Aviation and road safety — the Air Line Pilots Association, representing over 80,000 pilots, said Reflect Orbital’s own safety analysis was inadequate to address glare risk to aircraft.
• Wildlife harm — roughly a third of vertebrates and most invertebrates are light-sensitive at night; the scientific record links artificial light to disrupted migration and breeding, threatening species already protected under the Endangered Species Act.
• Human health — nighttime light suppresses melatonin and disrupts circadian rhythms, with peer-reviewed research tying this to elevated risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.

An Environmental Review is Necessary

Our main request is for the FCC to reverse the Space Bureau’s order and require a full, lawful environmental review — an Environmental Assessment or Impact Statement — before Earendil-1 is authorized to operate at all.

At a minimum, we argue, the FCC needs to place 16 binding conditions as part of its approval, including: an independent scattered-light and sky-brightness analysis; exclusions over national parks, wildlife refuges, and other protected or ecologically sensitive lands; blackout periods during peak bird migration and after midnight; a requirement to get sign-off from affected state, local, and Tribal governments; independent, third-party verifications of the actual beam; and the requirement of a full environmental review before any commercial scale constellation could move forward.

Part of a Bigger Fight Over What’s Allowed in Low Orbit

This filing Application for Review is one piece of a broader push by DarkSky, PEER, and allied groups to get federal regulators to properly review the wave of low-Earth orbit projects before the FCC — including proposals for orbiting data centers.

As companies make plans to launch more than a million data centers into space, the FCC must conduct a thorough review of the risks and impacts of these projects to ensure they are not causing irreparable environmental harm to the United States, and if they are, place conditions on these projects to minimize these harms.

With the space rush on, we must not fall blindly into accepting everything the industry and government tells us. Rather, we must continue to act to make sure federal agencies consider all the risks and impacts of these satellite proposals as part of the approval process.

The Application for Review and mitigations annex are now part of the FCC’s public record (ICFS File No. SAT-LOA-20250701-00129). There’s no set timeline for a ruling from the full Commission.

Climate campaigners warned that record high temperatures and a strong El Niño is resulting in severe drought in many countries, hitting crop yields and raising food prices. 350.org urged governments to move fast to protect farming communities and consumers, and mobilize the necessary funds through higher, permanent taxes on fossil fuel profits.

As the world’s top oil and gas companies banked $93 billion in second quarter profits, the UN warned that 49 million people may be facing acute hunger due to an exceptionally strong El Niño fueled by climate change.

Anne Jellema, 350.org Executive Director said:

“Our leaders’ response has to be swifter and stronger than El Niño. We already know that global heating is supercharging extreme weather damage, and the public wants polluters to pay for it. With Big Oil’s earnings skyrocketing while a global food crisis looms, now is the time to act. The only way to stave off a humanitarian disaster is to make those causing it pay upfront — before even more damage is done.”

Most of the Caribbean is currently suffering a moderate to severe drought triggered by El Niño, with conditions expected to get worse in the next few months lasting until early 2027.

Amira Odeh Quiñones, 350.org Caribbean Organizer said:

“Here in Puerto Rico, some households only have water three days a week. Historic amounts of sargassum seaweed due to record ocean temperatures are reducing fishermen’s catches. We’re already experiencing dramatic losses in agriculture due to drought and extreme heat. Local farmers are harvesting less, and the price of imported food is rising. Even if we contributed the least to the climate crisis, we are suffering from its harshest effects.”

In Indonesia, nearly 93% of the country had recorded low rainfall by mid-July and droughts have been recorded in almost 500 locations amid El Niño. An increase in forest fires has also been observed, even though Indonesia has yet to enter its wildfire season.

Sisilia Nurmala Dewi, 350.org Indonesia Manager said:

“Water scarcity is resulting in crop failures, and food price increases will soon follow. El Niño has been forecast since March — the government must be able to deliver a reliable, well-governed early warning system to farmers and at-risk communities before impacts hit. We urge the Prabowo government to impose a permanent windfall tax on fossil fuel companies to help raise funds for affected communities. Our leaders can’t just watch people go hungry while fossil fuel companies gorge on profits.”

In the United Kingdom, farmers are experiencing their worst harvests in years as a result of a heatwave gripping many parts of Europe. Farmers have warned that the country may be facing shortages in certain foods due to drought conditions.

Ellie May, 350.org UK campaigner said:

“Britain is baking, and farmers are paying the price. This punishing heatwave isn’t a one-off — it’s constantly rising food bills and food shortages we’ll face again and again unless we act. The oil and gas giants driving this crisis are raking in record profits. It’s time the UK government made polluters pay their fair share, so farmers and communities can weather what’s coming.”

In East Africa, Uganda’s worst drought in decades has already caused 19 deaths and a food crisis, while meteorologists warn that El Niño will trigger severe flooding in the region in October.

Ruth Agala, 350.org East Africa Organizer said:

“Farms are drying up, families are going hungry. Women and girls carry a double burden as they trek for long distances in search of food, water and firewood. While oil and gas giants rake in massive second-quarter profits and push forward with planet-heating projects like the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, ordinary Africans are left to pay the price. African governments must hold fossil fuel companies accountable with a windfall profits tax that can be used to finance a community-centered, just energy transition. We need public money to solve the problem, not subsidize it.”