Airborne test beamed solar power to ground using satellite hardware for space-based systems

On a blustery November day, a Cessna turboprop climbed to 16,400 feet over Pennsylvania and flew straight into crosswinds gusting up to 70 knots — nearly as fast as the aircraft itself. The conditions were rough. The mission was stranger still.

The plane wasn’t hauling cargo. It was silently beaming energy down to receivers on the ground as it passed overhead — the first time in history that power had been wirelessly transmitted from a moving aircraft.

A turboprop, a beam of light, and a first in history

That November flight was conducted by Overview Energy, an Ashburn, Virginia-based startup that emerged from stealth mode in December when it announced the achievement. Crosswinds gusting up to 70 knots at 16,400 feet made the test harder, but didn’t stop it. When the Cessna passed over the ground receivers, power flowed wirelessly from plane to Earth for the first time.

Overview’s solution: wide-field infrared waves at lower density, spread across existing utility-scale solar farms that absorb them just like ordinary sunlight.

The amount of energy transferred was small, according to media such as IEEE Spectrum. Almost beside the point, really.

What mattered was how it was done. Overview used the exact same components and techniques it plans to send to space. “Not only is it the first optical power beaming from a moving platform at any substantial range or power,” says CEO Marc Berte, “but also it’s the first time anyone’s really done a power beaming thing where it’s all of the functional pieces all working together. It’s the same methodology and function that we will take to space and scale up in the long term.”

Why beaming power from a plane matters for space

The airplane test was never really about airplanes. Overview’s actual goal is to place satellites in geosynchronous orbit — roughly 21,700 miles above Earth — where they can collect unfiltered solar energy around the clock and beam it back down. In orbit, the sun never sets, and the energy potential is enormous. The company plans to transmit that energy as near-infrared waves, receivable by ordinary solar panels already installed on the ground. No exotic hardware required.

Space-based solar power has attracted serious research attention over the past decade. Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project flew a demonstration mission in 2023 that transferred power in space using microwaves. More recently, DARPA set a new terrestrial record in July 2025: 800 watts transmitted wirelessly over 5,3 miles using a laser beam. Overview’s November flight added something neither milestone had achieved — a moving platform beaming power to a fixed ground receiver.

The expert who left DARPA because ‘it actually sounds like it could work’

Not everyone who hears a pitch about beaming solar energy from orbit takes it seriously. Paul Jaffe did — seriously enough to leave a job at DARPA to join Overview as head of systems engineering. Before that, Jaffe spent three decades at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He doesn’t chase long shots carelessly.

Hearing Berte explain Overview’s approach at a conference was what shifted his thinking. “This actually sounds like it could work,” Jaffe recalls. “It really seems like it gets around a lot of the showstoppers for a lot of the other concepts. I remember coming home and telling my wife that I almost felt like the problem had been solved.”

The specific problem that convinced him was the power-density dilemma. A low-density beam is safer but less efficient; a high-density beam delivers more usable power and demands careful safety engineering. Overview’s solution: wide-field infrared waves at lower density, spread across existing utility-scale solar farms that absorb them just like ordinary sunlight.

Why infrared beats microwaves for space-based solar

Most earlier concepts for space-based solar relied on microwaves. The problem isn’t just technical — it’s regulatory. As Jaffe puts it plainly: “If you somehow magically had a fully operational solar power satellite that used microwave power transmission in orbit today — and a multi-mile-scale microwave power satellite receiver on the ground magically in place today — you could not turn it on because the spectrum is not allocated to do this kind of transmission.”

Overview’s infrared approach sidesteps that obstacle entirely. Infrared doesn’t face the same spectrum allocation barriers, and it opens up a practical advantage microwaves can’t match: the receivers are already built. Existing solar farms absorb infrared energy from the sun every day — an Overview satellite would simply add another source. Berte’s roadmap moves in clear steps: a prototype demonstrator in low Earth orbit first, then GEO satellites beaming megawatts by 2030, gigawatts by later that decade.

What still stands between this idea and the power grid

The ambition is real. So are the obstacles. Space-based solar remains a challenging technology with substantial hurdles still ahead — surviving orbital debris, managing the high cost of launching large structures, scaling hardware that’s only been tested in miniature.

Overview’s satellite will be assembled on Earth in a folded configuration and unfurl once it reaches orbit, which reduces launch volume. But the economics of getting mass into space remain daunting. “Getting down the cost per unit mass for launch is a big deal,” Jaffe says. “Then it just becomes a question of increasing the specific power. A lot of the technologies we’re working on at Overview are squarely focused on that.”

The Pennsylvania flight didn’t solve those problems. What it did was show that the core system — transmitter, beam, receiver, moving platform — can work together as intended. That reduces risk and narrows the gap between concept and reality. Watch for the low Earth orbit demonstrator next. That’ll be the test that tells us whether 2030 is a deadline or a dream.

Daniel Garcia

Daniel García is an Editor-in-Chief with strong expertise in structural work and engineering principles. He combines this technical foundation with deep knowledge of energy, spatial design, and emerging technologies, bringing a forward-thinking and analytical approach to editorial leadership.