3 ms·

Thanks for the extra context, that's helpful. How big would the optics on a satellite in Starlink's orbit need to be to achieve similar clarity, then?

• defrost 1y ago
  A little bit bigger, the starlink sats have a uniform height, the optical spy sats with the big mirrors have a similar mean orbital height but are in elliptic orbits that come in closer, then further away. The best photos are taken closer to the earth than a typical starlink sat is. The above comment about geostationary orbits is confused .. the spy sats with mirrors relay their data out to geostationary relay sats and then back to earth ground stations. If you're curious you can read more in the wikipedia link (and other references) I linked in a peer comment.