DARPA's attempt to build an internetwork of communications satellites – which operates under the fabulous name Space-BACN – has tapped Intel, SpaceX, and others to build a kit that will make its planned "Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node" a reality.

Axar.az reports that as The Register detailed when Space-BACN was announced in late 2021, DARPA has taken note of the launch of many comms satellites by the likes of SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's planned constellation of 7,774 satellites.

The agency admires those efforts, but worries they are disconnected silos. DARPA would prefer "seamless communication between military/government and commercial/civil satellite constellations that currently are unable to talk with each other."

Which is the same logic DARPA applied when it developed the pioneering computer network ARPANET in the 1960s. In case you've forgotten your history, ARPANET gave us many of the technologies that made the internet possible.