US to launch Internet router into space

And no, this is not part of a global plan to take Interent communication into the space age :-). The idea is that the US Department of Defense will send a satellite, integrated with the internet router, into space in the first quarter of 2009. The software for the on-board router will be designed by Cisco (and Cisco can now claim that its routers belong to the space age), while SEAKR Engineering (based out of Denver) will manufacture the space router and integrate it into the satellite.
The purpose of the project, called Internet Routing in Space (IRIS), will allow voice, video and data communication for US troops. But as always with military technology, we can eventually expect that this ability will be available to non-military users with the passage of time. The internet, after all, grew out of a military programme.