Astronomers often have to deal with other artificial objects, including satellites that occasionally shine brightly when they reflect the Sun. Some of the brightest of these are known as iridium flares. But these are an annoyance in of themselves; astronomers certainly don’t want other objects to hamper their observations.

“The brightness is the issue,” Nick Howes, an astronomer and former deputy director of the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland, told IFLScience. “Other satellites bar the ISS are relatively faint, and that’s a scientific mission. This is just a stunt.

“Despite what appears to be significant public and social media backlash against this by the astronomical community, they have proceeded to launch. One can only hope the mission fails and the plan to blight our pristine dark skies never takes shape.”

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told IFLScience: "I think at least one of these can be lived with, but if there were a bunch of them it would make modern astronomy almost impossible."

Not all astronomers think it's a bad idea, however. Michael Wood-Vasey, from the University of Pittsburgh, said Mayak was "quite unlikely to be a problem for astronomers."

He added: "Mayak is orbiting just above the day/night terminator line – it's always sunrise/sunset below where Mayak is orbiting. It will thus be too low on (or even below) the horizon when it really gets dark enough for astronomers to observe."

For their part, the company says there is a scientific purpose for the mission. Aside from just shining brightly, the satellite will also test how to brake in orbit, with the large surface area causing more atmospheric drag and bringing it back into the atmosphere to burn up. This technology could be used to deorbit old satellites and space junk in the future.

However, there are undoubtedly other ways to test this technology without also causing a nuisance. One of these alone might not be an issue, but if this set a precedent for more in future, that probably wouldn't be great.