US Space-Mirror Start-Up Reflect Orbital Books Two Dedicated Launches on Skyroot's Vikram Rockets

Hyderabad's Skyroot Aerospace has won its most visible foreign customer yet. On 14 October 2026, US company Reflect Orbital announced that it has bought two dedicated launches from Skyroot to put its future spacecraft into orbit.

• The first launch will fly on Skyroot's Vikram-1, which reached orbit for the first time in July.
• The second will use the Vikram-1U, an upgraded version still in development.

Neither company has said when the launches will happen. Reflect Orbital's chief executive gave the commercial reason plainly: "there's a real launch capacity shortage right now."

Who Reflect Orbital is

Reflect Orbital is one of the more controversial young companies in the space industry. Its founders, including Ben Nowack and Tristan Semmelhack, want to put large mirrors in low Earth orbit. The mirrors would reflect sunlight onto chosen spots on the ground after dark, for uses such as extending the working hours of solar farms.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the company's application for EARENDIL-1, a demonstration satellite with an 18-by-18-metre mirror. The FCC said the approval does not decide any future application, and the licence allows only one satellite in orbit at a time for now. The company's long-term plan is a constellation of up to 50,000 mirrors, but it has not yet applied for one.

The idea has drawn strong opposition. Astronomers, wildlife advocates and environmental groups have objected, and several environmental organisations have asked the FCC to withdraw the demonstration permission. MIT Technology Review reported that the company's own FCC filing said looking at EARENDIL-1 through a telescope larger than 12 inches might be unsafe for human eyes.

Skyroot is not responsible for any of that. But its first marquee foreign customer comes with a public debate attached.

Why a US start-up picked an Indian rocket

The booking is a vote of confidence in a rocket with one flight behind it.

Vikram-1 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on 18 July 2026. ISRO called it the first time a private Indian company had made an orbital launch from Indian soil. Coverage of the flight says it reached orbit on that first attempt.

The rocket is a four-stage small-satellite launcher. The first three stages burn solid fuel and the upper stage uses hypergolic liquid propellants. Published figures put its capacity at up to about 350 kg to low Earth orbit, though other sources quote different figures.

For a company like Reflect Orbital, a dedicated launch matters more than a low price. On a rideshare, a satellite flies with dozens of others and must accept the main customer's orbit and schedule. On a dedicated small rocket, it gets the orbit it wants on a date it largely controls. The company described the two launches as giving it "assured schedule and capacity."

Skyroot's growing order book

The deal follows other good news for Skyroot. Aviation Week reported on 8 October that the company:

• aims to return Vikram-1 to the launch pad in January
• plans roughly monthly launches from 2028
• may have sold most of its capacity through 2029 by the end of this year

Reports disagree on when Vikram-1U will first fly. Aviation Week puts it in the second quarter of 2027, while Raksha Anirveda says the first quarter. New rockets often slip, so Reflect Orbital's second launch depends on a vehicle that has not flown yet.

What it means for India's space economy

India opened its space sector to private companies in 2020 and then set up IN-SPACe to authorise private missions. The aim was to grow Indian launch and satellite companies that can earn foreign revenue, not just win ISRO contracts.

A US company paying an Indian private launcher for dedicated rides is the kind of export that policy was meant to produce. A BusinessToday cover story the day before the announcement said India's space start-ups now face a harder test: whether they can compete abroad against a thin customer base and SpaceX's rideshare prices. Reflect Orbital's booking is one early sign Skyroot can.

Some caveats apply. The value of the deal was not disclosed. One orbital flight is not a track record. Reflect Orbital's own plans depend on regulators who are under public pressure. Even so, a second Vikram-1 flight with a paying foreign customer, followed by a first Vikram-1U flight, would show that India can sell launch capacity to the world as a business.

Sources

• https://www.satellitetoday.com/launch/2026/10/14/skyroot-to-provide-2-launches-for-reflect-orbital/
• https://spacenews.com/reflect-orbital-books-two-launches-with-indias-skyroot-aerospace
• https://prnewswire.com/news-releases/reflect-orbital-purchases-two-skyroot-launches-302907939.html
• https://www.deccanchronicle.com/southern-states/telangana/us-firm-buys-two-dedicated-launches-from-skyroot-1995938
• https://www.freepressjournal.in/tech/us-startup-reflect-orbital-partners-with-indias-skyroot-aerospace-to-beam-sunlight-onto-earth-at-night-using-space-mirrors
• https://raksha-anirveda.com/skyroot-wins-two-us-launches
• https://aviationweek.com/space/launch-vehicles-propulsion/skyroot-eyes-pad-return-backlog-swells
• https://www.isro.gov.in/First_private_orbital_launch_lifts_from_Sriharikota.html
• https://www.astronomy.com/science/fcc-approves-reflect-orbital-filing-for-mirror-in-space/
• https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/21/1142755/space-mirrors-night-sky/
• https://businesstoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/the-next-test-for-indias-space-tech-companies-is-whether-they-can-compete-globally-561116-2026-10-13