Reflect Orbital, the California startup that wants to sell sunlight on demand, has bought two launches from India's Skyroot Aerospace.
Reflect announced the purchase Wednesday, according to Payload Space. One launch will fly on Skyroot's Vikram-1, which became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit in July. The second will fly on an upgraded version called Vikram-1U. Reflect describes its goal as offering sunlight on demand using mirrors in space.
Launch capacity, meaning available seats on rockets, is the bottleneck for any company that needs hardware in orbit. So where a startup buys its rides says something about its options. Reflect is turning to a provider whose rocket first reached orbit this July. Splitting the order across Vikram-1 and Vikram-1U also ties Reflect to Skyroot's upgrade path, not just its first vehicle.
"Sunlight on demand" still sounds like a pitch-deck line. Two bookings on a young rocket family are a start, not a service.