A satellite startup wants to fill the night sky with ultra-powerful beams of redirected sunlight. What could go wrong?

According to astronomers, almost everything. Reflect Orbital’s plans to launch 50,000 satellites equipped with giant mirrors is akin to “a bullet in your head,” says one astrophysicist, citing threats to both the natural world and the future of astronomy.

Reflect offers “sunlight-as-a-service,” planning to use its constellation of satellites to beam down five-kilometer-wide rays of sunlight on demand, ranging in brightness from “noon light to moon light.”

Reflect’s website suggests potential use cases like powering solar panels, illuminating disaster zones and search-and-rescue missions, and lighting up worksites, cities, and events. But with a price tag of $5,000 for an hour of sunlight, the product would be prohibitively expensive for most customers—leaving critics to assume that only militaries and titans of industry are likely to make use of Reflect’s services, despite its altruistic branding.

So far, Reflect hasn’t actually launched any satellites. In August, it received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to launch a single demonstration satellite (much to the chagrin of environmental groups, which urged the FCC to reverse its decision). But moving forward, Reflect won’t need to seek approval from the U.S. government at all: It recently purchased two space launches located in India, which will be liable for any unintended consequences of satellites launched from within its borders under the Outer Space Treaty.

The prospect of messing with the day-night cycle immediately raised conccerns with environmentalists and astronomers alike, who are already contending with an increasingly crowded night sky thanks to spacecraft like SpaceX’s fleet of Starlink satellites .

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