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What ever happened to NASA and DARPA building the virtual ground station (i.e. getting rid of ground stations)?

You not taking into account what some of us have to deal with.

DISCLAIMER, I worked for HNS, LLC. They have developed, tested, and proven this concept already with the SPACEWAY 1 & 2 satellites. It routes IP from Satellite Terminal to Satellite Terminal, does multicast, mesh, etc. The DoD project is going to initially run at 100Mbps, SPACEWAY already does 10Gbps. SPACEWAY 3 is set to launch later this summer and be in service over 1 year before IRIS.
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The deal really is about Hughes whose main product is DirectTV - but I think they also have some stakes in the wireless data sector. Let's hope he brings some of that back with him to Australia.

Your first paragraph doesn't clarify anything. Hughes/DirecTV is owned by GM (General Motors) not GE (General Electric).

As the story correctly states, GE is considering buying Hughes.

He is one egocentric guy, naming almost all those companies after himself...

Yeah, that's pretty unprecedented.

Although the consumer broadband landscape is hardly a profitable area in today's business environment, the DirecTV unit's death could not be chalked up to slim margins alone. Just as they have utterly failed to prevent the theft of their premium television channels, DirecTV had placed little or no access control on their broadband network. I know this for a fact because I know of no fewer than five people who are able to get internet service from DirecTV for free, with some slightly modified equipment. Obviously, hiring a bunch of half wits to secure your network does not help the matter.

For the past 15 months, I've tried virtually every option available and I can't get it. The .com bust didn't help some struggling providers, but the real problem is the bastards that control the last mile. Because they have monopolies on the copper coming into my house, I am left with the poor prospect of allowing SpeakEasy.net to service themselves monthly on my posterior, while being grateful that they're only charging $89.99 for an 128k line.

I'd like to have other options, but reality has a nasty way of intruding on my dreams. Here's a quick rundown for those who are interested:

Cable Modem: Real Soon Now[TM], @Home says so. And that's been their story for the last 15 months.

Sprint Wireless: I live in a local valley that line-of-sight technologies can't penetrate. Of course, Sprint isn't even offering this now...

Wireless (Ricochet): Had a fat 128k pipe, but Chapter 13 took down the connection. Aerie (who bought Ricochet) claims to be offering service again. If only they would have done something 2 months sooner.

Satellite: Check out Huge Aircrash's, er I mean Hughes Electronics' spiffy DiRECWAY technology. What's that? Only available for Windows 98, 2k, and ME? Well Windows ME harder! I refuse to buy another computer to access the 'Net.

Fiber: I can pay to have Fiberhood run fibre to the rental I live in...or not.

DSL: Some local monopoly claims that they'll be upgrading their equipment in my area, which will shorten the 23,400 feet distance between my home and highspeed heaven Real Soon Now[TM]. And it's been their story for 15 months, too.

The real problem is that no one can afford to compete with the incumbent telcos. Even if someone could come up with a high-speed wireless solution (and 128k does not qualify) for my area, they'd be out of business within 2-3 years of inception and within 6-9 months of deployment. Why? Guess where the monopolies would spend their time upgrading their services--areas where customers have no choices, or areas where their monopoly is threatened?

The demand is threre. Content is not really holding up broadband. Broadband is being held up by the ILECs--at virtual gunpoint.

I am disappointed that my service will now probably die.

History

I signed up with Phoenix Networks in April of 2000. They are/were a St. Louis-based ISP contracting with Northpoint for SDSL circuits with a static IP for reasonable prices. I received 768/384 for $40/mo., and the throughput on my circuit was always satisfactory.

Delivery of the circuit required USWest (now QWest) to do their part and bring me a new pair to my house and they did dawdle, but after that, the install was seamless and my circuit met my expectations.

Northpoint offered a rebate program at the time of sign-up. I never received that rebate, though I am not too concerned about that. What bothered me was a few months after becoming a PhoenixDSL/Northpoint customer, I found out that Phoneix went under. Their service was maintained/acquired by Megapath, who retained the business clients and spun the residential customers to Telocity. Several months later, Telocity has yet to send me the hardware they say I "need" to use to access their service, and billing seems to be up in the air. I thought about leaving their stable for Megapath or QWest but decided to wait things out since Telocity has recently been made a subsidiary of Hughes Corporation, the muscle behind DirecTV/PC and I am intrigued by potential bundled packages.

Through all this, my service has been reliable. I marvel that any industry can maintain viability with such turmoil, let alone leave my connection solid and intact. I am happy my service still works (knock^2), yet realize what has been a good ride shall now come to its close and I must begin shopping.