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> The amazing views of the plasma during re-entry, something never seen live before starship, are now routine.

The word "live" is doing a lot of work here. Astronauts used to film the plasma going past the windows of Shuttle.

I remember as a kid my science textbook had a still of it to illustrate plasma.

> The word "live" is doing a lot of work here

A latency of a few seconds for streaming video compared to several months for a still photo from the Shuttle seems an entirely valid use of 'live'.

The difference here is a matter of AV technology improvements in the last 40 years.

The difference is having high-bandwidth signal pointed up / away from the wall of plasma.

And having such a large craft that a hole in the plasma envelope exists above the craft that can reach Starlink.