The Speculist

A New Kind of Space Race

I just saw this in my daily dose from Ray Kurzweil:

Shooting for Space

Cisco and its partners, including NASA, have launched a router into low Earth orbit as a test of extending the Internet into space.

Space-based routers could be used to tie the military's myriad networks together and the government's research networks together so that personnel on land, in the air or at sea can communicate directly.

On the one hand, pushing the Internet into space is a good thing, an important step towards a number of important developments. On the other hand, Cisco has rather thrown down the gauntlet. Who will decide to take them on in the quest for space supremacy? How long will Bill Gates allow his company to remain earthbound when others are taking this kind of step?