FUNDING
- how will we pay for space development and settlement? -

SUBSIDIZED "COMMERCIAL" SPACE

"Without the ISS, I would be buying a ride from some of these fine gentleman's companies at orders of magnitudes greater costs which for a commercial entity might not be possible...
"But we can't jump from making a little bit of money or no money to paying for a significant portion of his module or anyone's facility because the math just doesn't quite solve."

We need to be very careful about trying to establish a "commercial" station in LEO. If it is likely that it could transition to a fully commercial, profitable in the near term then this would be a worthwhile policy. But the ISS is coming nowhere close to becoming commercially viable and it would seem to be very speculative to say that a commercial station in LEO would be profitable.

For these reasons, the Space Development Network advocates that the near-term focus of space policy be to develop the closest location where there are substantial resources which could substantially reduce the amount and hence cost of launch -- namely, the Moon and to leave the commercial development of LEO to the private sector.