GE/NBC and Microsoft partnered to form MSNBC several years ago, probably as an attempt at competing with CNN in the 24 hour news business. I'm sure they knew it'd take time for the new business to become solvent. However, no one is willing to subsidize losses forever.

MSNBC doesn't have a very big share of the market. That means they can't charge as much for their advertising time as other networks. Running a large website like theirs requires a lot of people, making it an expensive proposition. Low revenues, small markets, and large operating costs mean that something had to give. In case you didn't notice, CNN and several other news web outfits have laid off a lot of people recently, too.

Ultimately, a business has to sink or swim on its own. NBC might be feeling some profit pinch because they announced they're going to allow hard liquor advertising for the first time. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest their $100 million offer to Katie Couric had anything to do with closing the MSNBC bulletin boards because I doubt the funds come from the same pot of money. The bulletin boards just weren't generating enough revenue to justify their existance any more. It was a simple business decision. Like the line from "The Godfather", "It isn't personal, it's only business."

As for Gates and space, he has put quite a bit of money into Teledesic. I have not heard anything of that project in a while so I don't know if it'll ever happen. One thing seems reasonably certain - Gates isn't interested in spending billions unless he sees some long term potential in it. As much as some people would like to think otherwise, I just don't see him underwriting space probes or other ventures unless he can make money at it. I can't say I blame him, either. It's his money and he's free to do with it as he sees fit. Space just doesn't seem to be a priority for him.