SpaceX's next Starlink dish may be further along than the company has acknowledged.
Oleg Kutkov, a repair specialist in Ukraine who regularly tears down and documents Starlink hardware, spotted a reference to a "rev5" dish while combing through a recent firmware release. The string appeared in software meant for the current standard dish — which means SpaceX is already weaving rev5 support into its software stack before making any public announcement. Kutkov has previously surfaced undisclosed hardware details through the same method, giving the find some credibility beyond pure speculation.
The discovery matters because Starlink's quiet hardware iteration cycle has real consequences for customers. SpaceX has revised its standard dish multiple times while keeping the product name identical — something that affects resale value, parts availability, and how long older hardware stays fully supported on the network. A rev5 would follow that pattern: announced when SpaceX is ready, not when the firmware lets it slip.
For now, a string in a firmware file is not a product roadmap. SpaceX has not commented, and the gap between a firmware reference and a shipping device can be months or longer — or nothing at all.