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

About this episode

Ben Nowack discusses how Reflect Orbital is building satellites to redirect sunlight from space and the challenges he faced in the process.

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…

People in this episode

Guest: Ben Nowack

Topics covered

• satellites
• sunlight
• energy
• technology
• business

Keywords

• Reflect Orbital
• programming sunlight
• space technology
• entrepreneurship

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, Reflect Orbital satellites

Books & works: Reflect

Places: Earth

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