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This reeks of "announcementware." Startlink is already most of what's in orbit and currently working. Falcon 9 has way more launch capacity than current satelli
by Zigurd 4y ago
This reeks of "announcementware." Startlink is already most of what's in orbit and currently working. Falcon 9 has way more launch capacity than current satellite construction other than Starlink can use. But without a reusable rocket, the Chinese will have a difficult time launching a constellation almost 3X larger than Starlink is today.
Satellite size and capacity are also an issue. I doubt Starlink can scale without next gen sats that weigh 5X as much, and that have laser links among satellites so that Starlink is not bounded by availability of ground stations (some of this is in "v1.5 Starlink sats). These sats need Starship. China has nothing like Starship, certainly not aimed at being low-cost. (Not that Starship is guaranteed to work or meet cost targets.)