>>13084010>>13084087I think they're going to be using Starlink terminals on all SN# flights here onwards. The closer they get to an orbital flight, the more important it becomes to be able to get telemetry from the vehicle. At 10-12km, its an overkill to relay the traffic to an overhead satellite and then backdown, when you can just do it directly. But for a long-term goal of using it in the vessel, its not.
Plus, for when they do a BN# flight to several kilometers, they'll likely do the same (because BNs will have 4 engines instead of 3 and they want to possibly extrapolate stress conditions even further). Additionally, when they do a BN+SN flight to orbit, they want to be able to relay the full telemetry back down and the higher the two get to orbit, the closer they get to the overhead Starlink satellites. So communication with the rocket and ship becomes much easier; and the same applies during reentry--because remember that the starlink terminal is on the leeward side and not the winward side. This means during reentry, they can do full telemetry BACK to an overhead Starlink and back down. It's entirely possible for them to capture 4K footage during reentry (because Starship is so huge and has such a large surface area), that a camera can comfortably sit during the plasma covered reentry process and capture it all in glorious 4K.
Imagine the WOW factor it would have for the public and for younger generations looking to get into STEM/space, to be able to see that in all its detail. SpaceX is VERY. VERY. Genre Savvy. They know how to be godly engineers AND play well to the modern audience. Something old space is really lobotomized retarded at.
