[lmm]

> True but for best latency and speeds a direct link back to ground would be best.

Speed maybe, latency no. Light is faster in a vacuum than through a fiber optic cable, so a satellite-to-satellite path would generally be faster even though it has to go a few hundred km further.

[GekkePrutser]

True but in each satellite it has to be processed, integrity checked routed and queued to the next hop. That kind of stuff takes much longer than any differences in light speeds.

[lmm]

No it doesn't, and it's not like you don't need to route messages travelling terrestrially. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the technology knows that what you're saying is straight-up false.