Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service".
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@sundogplanets this is quite outrageous. How is it possible that everything in there public domain / commons seems to be up for grabs instead being protected for its cultural and natural value. Can’t believe this stuff.
@legocas @sundogplanets There's a small number of people who, if someone says "this belongs to all of us," will refuse to understand it and just goes "okay, it's mine, so I can do whatever I want with it".
Unfortunately they have an outsized influence in our society. -
@sundogplanets Plus. It's open for comments worldwide. Right?
@Tony_Meredith Yes: "This process is also open to those outside the United States who may be impacted by a proposed system."
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets is this a real concern?
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@Olson @sundogplanets @river
The idea is that we all will, and we won’t have a choice.@markmetz @Olson @sundogplanets @river This! Refelct Orbital did not ask the 8+ billion people living on this rock if we wanted "sunlight as a service". Just typing that makes me want to lol.
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
Current AI: aggressively inconvenient
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@sundogplanets Ok, so launching one satellite every 10 minutes nonstop would take almost 20 years to launch a million satellites, and that is assuming that someone can build them and deliver them to launch pads at that rate.
Completely unrealistic. Is this really about launching that much or is it about generating hype before trying to sell something or raise money?
@BrianJohnson @sundogplanets Feels so much like the latter...
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@sundogplanets It makes zero sense to launch datacenters in space. I ain't gonna go through the technical reasons why, but you can read here where someone that actually worked at NASA and google explaining why its a bad idea... https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/
But if I could take a moment to poke my conspiracy brain, I think this is more for building an advanced surveillance network against the whole world. You can possibly monitor almost everything on Earth with a network like that.
@MimiWhiskers @sundogplanets I believe that it's just a stupid idea, intended to inflate the stock price for the intended upcoming IPO of SpaceX. There is no serious intent to actually launch much of anything.
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W wando@troet.cafe shared this topic
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@Tony_Meredith Yes: "This process is also open to those outside the United States who may be impacted by a proposed system."
Indeed it is - done!
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets I would say, probably nothing we write is going to matter. Both these companies know who to send kick backs to in order to ensure that this will happen... The main thing we have on our side is that if they put 1 million data centers in low earth orbit, it is going to make it impossible to launch anything into space without collisions becoming extremely frequent. Everything Elon does is riddled with bugs, because he is just sloppy and hires sloppy and shitty engineers that are like him, mostly because he is a narcissist, but I digress... These things will break and crash into each other and come crashing down on people's homes and if we are lucky they will land directly on Elon's head. Since once they are in free fall it's basically anybody's guess where they might end up landing. The things these idiots do have consequences... Mostly for other people because that's how statistics works, but if they do enough dumb shit, eventually it becomes much more likely to effect themselves.
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@Prof. Sam Lawler comments for US citizens only or worldwide? -
@sundogplanets Ok, so launching one satellite every 10 minutes nonstop would take almost 20 years to launch a million satellites, and that is assuming that someone can build them and deliver them to launch pads at that rate.
Completely unrealistic. Is this really about launching that much or is it about generating hype before trying to sell something or raise money?
@BrianJohnson @sundogplanets Odds definitely say that a million AI datacenters in orbit is just more fragile ego twitter trolling for shareholders.
However playing with the numbers conservatively, using the 2025 SpaceX launch numbers (down from initial targets) and assuming starlink sattellites get retooled (or just rebranded) as "AI datacenters" for twitter/shareholder creds, SpaceX would need 125 years to launch 1mill units. 62.5 years if using Starship.
Plenty damage early on "for the lols"
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@Olson @markmetz @sundogplanets @river this is all making reincarnation look like a bad idea
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets telling my 1920s time travel companion that in 2026 the capitalists aren’t trying to privatise the night sky — they’re trying to destroy it, for imaginary gains to their bad mechanical Turk.
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets Hello
, Nice meeting you all Am New Here -
Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets i can't shake the image of a pacman in orbit nomming on satellites
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets the fact that any country is just allowed to do this is so fucked
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@sundogplanets It makes zero sense to launch datacenters in space. I ain't gonna go through the technical reasons why, but you can read here where someone that actually worked at NASA and google explaining why its a bad idea... https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/
But if I could take a moment to poke my conspiracy brain, I think this is more for building an advanced surveillance network against the whole world. You can possibly monitor almost everything on Earth with a network like that.
@MimiWhiskers @sundogplanets thank you, glad to see that someone who's an expert has written a thorough debunk. It was obvious to me that it was a terrible idea just because of the cooling but it's great to see all the other reasons laid out clearly too
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets
When burning ants alive with a magnifying glass makes you wish you could hear the screams….. cartoonish supervillainy shit right here, jfc -
Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets I can't believe this is actually fucking real.
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!
@sundogplanets
You just wait until Elon figures he wants a hand in space-based beamed power...
