Antenna size is a different one. They're orbiting low enough that atmospheric effects become a real issue. See the deployment in February[1] where they lost ~40 of the 49 satellites in a launch batch, because a Geomagnetic storm increased the atmospheric density at their initial parking orbit, overwhelming the ability for their control system to maintain orbit.
So, yeah, they could then scale up the control system, too - but that makes them even heavier, increases fuel expenditure, reduces lifetime, etc.
The antenna array is parallel to the ground, so scaling it up has a minimal impact on drag.
It increases mass, sure, but an increased mass to drag area ratio is usually considered a good thing (you'll be needing a better rocket to launch it tho).
It's not always perfectly edge on, and it requires a control system to keep it oriented that way.
This is why from the linked article:
> The satellites were then placed in a protective "safe mode" and commanded to fly edge-on "like a sheet of paper" to minimize drag effects as the company worked with the U.S. Space Force and the company LeoLabs to track them with ground-based radar, it added.
The v2 satellites they're testing out to launch on starship are in fact scaled up. The v1.5 they're launching now are larger than the originals which is why they've not launched 60 starlink satellites on a single falcon 9 launch in sometime.
I thought they start at about 250 km after launch and then boost up to around 400 km. They don't have very powerful thrusters or gyros so they couldn't boost faster then they fell out of orbit.
It seems that they are far safer once they have boosted up into operational orbit - that's why only the recently launched Starlinks fell back to earth.
Spot size is one physics problem.
Antenna size is a different one. They're orbiting low enough that atmospheric effects become a real issue. See the deployment in February[1] where they lost ~40 of the 49 satellites in a launch batch, because a Geomagnetic storm increased the atmospheric density at their initial parking orbit, overwhelming the ability for their control system to maintain orbit.
So, yeah, they could then scale up the control system, too - but that makes them even heavier, increases fuel expenditure, reduces lifetime, etc.
[1] https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-lost-geomag...