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The ground stations will use phased-array antennas to track the satellite(s) as they pass overhead.

Presumably the system will be smart enough to load balance users across the satellites visible to them to keep the load on any particular satellite as low as possible, though this only speculation.

Yeah, pretty much. SpaceX doesn't get a Federal budget, being as it's a privately owned, publicly traded company initially financed by Musk himself.

Wanna try again? Double or nothing? MAYBE some citable sources, this time?

"Privately funded, it had a vehicle before it got money from NASA, and while NASA’s space station resupply funds are a tremendous boost, SpaceX would have existed without it."

It was a great idea but it failed commercially, somehow.

This was proposed as a viable service last year:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/dollarsandsense/38349.html

And even Via Satellite magazine published this piece which announced an agreement with at least one major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/features/37531.html

But early in 2012 they quietly announced termination of the agreement with said major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/satn/features/38192.html

So, I guess that today's development indicates that the technology is not commercially viable, but somehow needs more research? The sheer number of perfectly good bent-pipe satellites in geosynchronous orbit that are "dead" and moved to graveyard orbits for the sole reason that they have run out of fuel for station-keeping is staggering and should not be ignored.

Is this a good development or a bad one? MDA should have been given more of the benefit-of-the-doubt, or was there some other problem, either business-wise or technology-wise about MDA that we don't know about?

It was a great idea but it failed commercially, somehow.

This was proposed as a viable service last year:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/dollarsandsense/38349.html

And even Via Satellite magazine published this piece which announced an agreement with at least one major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/features/37531.html

But early in 2012 they quietly announced termination of the agreement with said major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/satn/features/38192.html

So, I guess that today's development indicates that the technology is not commercially viable, but somehow needs more research? The sheer number of perfectly good bent-pipe satellites in geosynchronous orbit that are "dead" and moved to graveyard orbits for the sole reason that they have run out of fuel for station-keeping is staggering and should not be ignored.

Is this a good development or a bad one? MDA should have been given more of the benefit-of-the-doubt, or was there some other problem, either business-wise or technology-wise about MDA that we don't know about?

It was a great idea but it failed commercially, somehow.

This was proposed as a viable service last year:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/dollarsandsense/38349.html

And even Via Satellite magazine published this piece which announced an agreement with at least one major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/via/features/37531.html

But early in 2012 they quietly announced termination of the agreement with said major satellite communications provider:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/satn/features/38192.html

So, I guess that today's development indicates that the technology is not commercially viable, but somehow needs more research? The sheer number of perfectly good bent-pipe satellites in geosynchronous orbit that are "dead" and moved to graveyard orbits for the sole reason that they have run out of fuel for station-keeping is staggering and should not be ignored.

Is this a good development or a bad one? MDA should have been given more of the benefit-of-the-doubt, or was there some other problem, either business-wise or technology-wise about MDA that we don't know about?

A great article on the space junk problem can be found at;

http://www.satellitetoday.com/commercial/manufacturers/Space-Debris-Small-But-Growing-Problem_21599.html

They discuss the radioactive coolant losses from discarded satellites that were boosted into "graveyard orbits" and how the cooling systems have sprung leaks, leaving behind solidified chunks of radioactive sodium, potassium and lead.