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by gozur88 3202 days ago
>The entire ISS weighs only 450 tons. But an Aircraft Carrier weighs 100,000+ tons. Even with a 90% launch cost reduction, it's impossible to build Carrier-sized habitats without breaking national economies.

What makes space expensive is the one-off nature of the launches. If you really wanted to build an aircraft carrier in space you could take advantage of economies of scale not previously available. It wouldn't break a national economy. Not the US economy, anyway.