Taking a step beyond previously mentioned live coverage of events in space, in a little over a year from now, the Department of Defense plans to actually extend the internet into space by deploying an internet router on-board a satellite:
Cisco will provide the software for an on-board router in a space project it is conducting for the U.S. Department of Defense. The Internet routing in space (IRIS) project “allows direct IP routing over satellite,” said Intelsat General Vice President Don Brown in a statement, “eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport, thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the satellite communications link.”Like ARPANET”IRIS is to the future of satellite-based communications what ARPANET was to the creation of the Internet in the 1960s,” he added. ARPANET was the military’s predecessor to the current Internet.
The project may lead to a completely space-based Internet. Internet traffic between satellites or space vehicles is currently routed through a remote terminal on Earth. IRIS will allow space-to-space Internet traffic to avoid traveling back to Earth, unless it needs to be finally delivered here. It’s possible the project could lead to a faster global IP network, since traffic could travel in space and only come back for delivery.
Intelsat said that, while IRIS is initially being developed for the military, it is expected that the technology will eventually be available for commercial use.
Wireless Security – Cisco Busy with Router for Space and Wireless Fixes
IRIS is a potentially very disruptive development for the broad spectrum of industries which depend on satellite interconnections. It has the makings of a transforming Erie Canal type of impact(for a fascinating, detailed account of this network effect see Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation).
What follows are a few links that provide slightly different takes on this. A good bit of info is repeated but if you are really interested in the topic it’s worthwhile. On a different day I’d take the time to synthesize them into a single post but as they say “so many links, so little time” 
Update:
Several very excellent resources exist from Cisco’s successful effort to put an off-the-shelf router on the UK-DMC (Disaster Monitoring Consortium) Low Earth Orbit satellite. IRIS is a follow-on to this effort.
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