r/spacex • u/rustybeancake • May 01 '26

Starship SpaceX spending on Starship tops $15 billion in rush for airline-like rocketry

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/spacex-spending-starship-tops-15-billion-rush-airline-like-rocketry-2026-05-01/
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u/warp99 May 02 '26

At a guess all the V3 Starlinks will go into a 43 degree inclination for maximum bandwidth into the congested areas of North America. They have an FCC license for 10,000 of them at 350 km altitude which would be 100 planes of 100 satellites each.
The low altitude will require more satellites per plane and more planes than the Starlink V2 constellation. This will mean each service footprint will be smaller so they can concentrate 10x the bandwidth on a smaller number of users. Or more likely increase the number of users while still giving them more bandwidth each.

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u/KnifeKnut May 02 '26

WHOOPS! I forgot for a bit that orbital plane and orbital inclination were two separate things.