SpaceX applied yesterday for a communications permit for Starship's next flight. As expected, SpaceX leaves the possibility for this mission to feature a booster catch. However... there's more information attached to this that's very interesting.
Here's a🧵(links at the end)
SpaceX added an exhibit for this permit explaining why this permit has additional communication frequencies for the Ship. It indicates that this flight and the next (5 and 6) will feature a similar set of radio controllers as to the ones we've seen on the Booster
For those keeping track, you may know that Ship 30 will sport a new set of antennas more similar to the ones on the booster so this confirms the observations. Ship 31 also has the same antenna design.
If you didn't know, here's @Ringwatchers explaining it ringwatchers.com/article/s30-up…
This document in fact goes into a bit more detail specifying that these antennas are 180 degrees apart just as we've seen on these vehicles.
But the most important part of all of this is that it would confirm that Flights 5 and 6 share this antenna design and so it likely refers to Ship 30 and Ship 31. This means that Ship 31, despite its sparky past, it may fly after all.
But even more important than that is perhaps the confirmation that Ship 32 may not fly and that Flight 7 will feature the next version of the ship, which will also feature a different RF design.
It's also interesting to see that this change only happens on the ship and not on the booster which would further confirm the theory that the first version 2 Ships will still be launched by version 1 Boosters. But that's still an unconfirmed theory so nothing firm yet.
A corollary to this is that SpaceX also recently renewed its license to use Starlink antennas on Starship and it still doesn't mention anything about Starship remaining in orbit. So if you were hoping for that anytime soon, well, you'll have to wait a bit.
Link to Starship Flight 5 FCC permit:
Link to the exhibit: .
Link to Starlink on Starship narrative description: .apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo…
apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm…
apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm…
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