wrote:
The basic laws of economics prevail; if it were possible, someone other
than the government would be putting satellites in orbit and making a
buck or two in the process.

The problem is that the ecomonics of space flight are skewed by excessive
subsidies. Boeing likes getting paid $20 million for a window. Politicians
love to have all that money pumped into their state. And NASA works to make it
all happen.

NASA micro manages Boeing, but the government also micro-manages NASA, telling
it it can't develop this, can't implement that etc. The one potential great
advancement for the space station was Transhab, but that got specifically
canned by the government.

I am sure some people at NASA know how to modify the existing shuttles so that
they cost much less to operate/maintain. But NASA doesn't have the authority
nor money to implement this.