Orbital Reflector is a shiny balloon that will expand in space Trevor Paglen/Nevada Museum of Art
For the artist as provocateur, the night sky is an enticingly vast canvas. The latest attempt to make a mark on the heavens comes from Trevor Paglen, an artist known for outsized works that rely on technological innovation.
His new piece, Orbital Reflector, is a giant diamond-shaped balloon that will inflate once it is in orbit around Earth. It is expected to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 2 December. The 30-metre-long structure is coated in titanium dioxide, which will reflect the…


![Ryoji Ikeda, data-cosm [n?1], 180 Studios, 2025. Photo by Alice Lubbock.](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/23114419/SEI_281523359.jpg)
