[learc83]

SpaceX is going to drastically reduce the price to orbit, which will drastically reduce the cost of all space exploration.

Substantially cheaper price to orbit will allow us to start doing things like economically assembling large spacecraft in space.

A cheaper method to orbit is a necessary building block of everything else, and so far NASA hasn't been able to do that. Congress views NASA as a giant jobs program, and as long as they are running NASA, cheap isn't realistic.

[morsch]

I just don't think one order of magnitude in cost-to-orbit is what is stopping us from doing things like assembling a large craft in space.

A cheaper method to orbit is in fact not a necessary building block. It's nice to have, of course. I'm sure we'll end up with more useful stuff in orbit, which is a good thing. But space exploration has so many building blocks still simply missing, this won't change anything fundamentally.