They only have one more shipv2 right now. The next ones are shipv3. So my guess is that a ship catch doesn't make sense, since they're changing the architecture on the next ones. Would make sense to continue with limit finding (it's a disposable launch anyway, old gear) on things that carry over (i.e. thermal protection, ablative materials, crazy angles, etc)

One interesting point is if they actually go for orbit. It would take just a few more seconds to reach something like 200+km / 100km, a place where they could deploy some v3 Starlinks and gather data from the launch (i.e. vibrations, health, dinging on the door, etc). It would be a test where they get more data that's transferable to the new architecture, and relatively low risk of getting stuck in orbit. (low perigee would mean eventual re-entry anyway, hopefully over the ocean) The sats can probably raise themselves from there.

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Culonavirus 5 days ago | parent [-]

Like you said, flight 11 has the last V2 and since V3 is not compatible with the existing pad A (only the new pad B that is being finished atm), it would be a nice opportunity to try the ship catch because cratering the old pad A and/or its tower wouldn't be that much of a deal. The entire Pad A has to be replaced anyways.

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dmix 5 days ago | parent [-]

What did they change about the pad between 2 and 3?

	▲	Culonavirus 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The new pad (pad B and all pads going forward) is completely different than pad A. There's now a flame trench instead of just a steel plate, the square shaped pad structure has water cooled top, etc. but specifically "backwards incompatible" changes would I guess be the pad having two booster QDs instead of one, the tower being a bit higher, the chopsticks a lot shorter, ship QD is also higher (i think)?
	▲	sho_hn 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not sure about the pad, but the V3 ship has the catch points on the fins for example.