[Sapient]

After a certain amount of equipment has been launched, they will no longer have any need to get more stuff into space, as everything they need will already be there. All they have to do is make sure they can reach that tipping point where they can construct the bulk of their miners in space (Building the hulls out of asteroid metals, and then just launching the smaller, complex, electronic etc parts from earth).

Break even for these people wont come from the first asteroid they mine - and I doubt they are expecting it to.