This... "But the big one is... there's not a HUGE backlog of stuff we're trying to put into LEO" ...is way under-reported. Half of what's in orbit is Starlink! But that only supports 1M subscribers, based on the last public set of numbers.
The current constellation is mostly a "bent pipe" network that has no inter-satellite communication. The new satellites that are intended to form a kind of "backbone in orbit," even the "mini" versions, are much larger and heavier and those need an economical working Starship to make financial sense.
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[ 312 ms ] story [ 35.0 ms ] threadAlso. Too many inaccuracies in that article to list them all.
But the big one is... there's not a HUGE backlog of stuff we're trying to put into LEO. Right now it's mostly starlink satellites to LEO.
The current constellation is mostly a "bent pipe" network that has no inter-satellite communication. The new satellites that are intended to form a kind of "backbone in orbit," even the "mini" versions, are much larger and heavier and those need an economical working Starship to make financial sense.
edit: dang, I have a stalker downvoting my comments. There really are many interesting charts and graphs.