A communication system for a hypersonic vehicle uses a distributed antenna system, an impedance matching circuit that provides impedance matching between a transmitter and/or receiver and the selected one or more antennas of the distributed antennas system and a surrounding plasma sheath, near-field probes to determine impedance of the plasma sheath adjacent to each of the probes and thus predict behavior of the respective antennas near the probes, and a control system that selectively connects a transmitter and/or receiver to one or more of the antennas based upon the antennas that are seeing the most favorable transmission or reception characteristics and controlling the impedance matching is to provide impedance matching for the selected antennas.