The spacecraft also carries a novel laser communications system to test high-speed data transmission technology for future space missions.
According to Damballa's timeline of events, the Aurora operation's botnets began to test communications between command and control servers in July of last year.
Wireless communications giant Qualcomm plans to test the waters later this year with a new class of gadgets called smartbooks built on the company's Snapdragon chipset.
The delay will also give the markets time to test their communications, computers and power systems, officials said.
During the flight, SpaceX announced that the Falcon 9 also carried to orbit eight tiny satellites, including one for the United States Army to test new communications technology.
In February, having identified features in the Moroccan desert in the northern Sahara near Erfoud that share qualities with the surface of Mars, the Austrian Space Forum and PolAres Research Program will conduct the integrated MARS2013 Mars Analog Field Simulation to test equipment, communications and more.
The delay will give the markets time to test their communications, computers and power systems.
Other companies, including Honda, can also use the corridor to test V2I communications in real-world conditions.
This can become so much more than a dry, painful, secretive legal process – it's an opportunity to put mature, modern and forward-thinking communications to the test.
The exercise was designed specifically to test internal military communications and coordination among battle staffs in the Pentagon; in Tampa, Fla., where the headquarters of the Central Command is located; and in the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of an Israeli strike.
Swarm's original plan was to put several very small satellites — smaller even than 1U Cubesats — in orbit to test its experimental communications system.
