Programming Sunlight: How Reflect Orbital Is Building Satellites to Redirect Light From Space (Ben Nowack, Founder & CEO)

The Generalist

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Programming Sunlight: How Reflect Orbital Is Building Satellites to Redirect Light From Space (Ben Nowack, Founder & CEO)

From building fusion reactors in high school to launching satellites that beam sunlight to Earth: Ben Nowack shares Reflect Orbital's journey to make light programmable.

Mario Gabriele

Jan 20, 2026

“It’s either sunny or it’s not sunny, and there’s not much you can do about that—but we’re trying to change that for the first time ever.” —Ben Nowack

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Most energy conversations start with scarcity. This one starts with abundance. Sunlight powers nearly everything on Earth, directly or indirectly. And yet we have almost no control over when or where we get it. Ben Nowack thinks that’s a solvable problem. Ben is the founder and CEO of Reflect Orbital, a company building satellites designed to redirect sunlight from space—not as a thought experiment, but as a product. The company nearly died before it worked. Eight months in, Ben had $300 left and was living in a garage. He made a deliberate decision to go $50,000 into credit card debt to finish critical tests. At one point, he was down to $21 of available credit. A month later, Reflect raised its first round. Today, the company is preparing to launch its first revenue-generating satellites. This is a conversation about building conviction, finding the real market, and what changes when a fundamental resource becomes programmable.

In our conversation, we explore:

How Reflect’s satellites work
The surprising pivot from energy to lighting applications that made the business immediately viable
Ben’s remarkable journey from building RC planes and X-ray machines in high school to founding Reflect
Why previous attempts at space mirrors failed and what’s changed to make this possible now
The near-death moment when Ben went $50,000 into credit card debt to keep his vision alive
How Reflect plans to scale from moonlight-level brightness to potentially powering solar farms
The company’s first satellite launches planned for this year, and their path to a full constellation
The wide range of applications, from emergency response to municipal lighting to agriculture