Commercial space station

>>>>He may very well be right, but I can't help but wonder if this isn't just
more of his "everything's easier to do on a planet, and exceedingly
difficult and expensive to do in space" bias. It happens to be a very
self-serving bias for him to promote to others, because it encourages them
to consider settlement of Mars, but to be dismissive of the orbital
settlement concepts of O'Neill (which are the chief competition with his
ideas).

I think Alpha is so expensive not so much because it required on-orbit
assembly as because of cost-plus contracts, and the scheduling difficulties
brought on by putting a cash-strapped nation into the critical loop.

On-orbit assembly is the only way we are ever going to get to orbiting
structures larger than Skylab (which I would assume everyone on this list
would be in favour of).>>>>

The on-orbit assembly required several shuttle flights, costing $600million
dollars each, and it boasted zero quality control. Which would you rather rely
upon? half a dozen astronauts, seriously impeded by space suits and equipped
with a limited selection of tools and limited time?
Or, a spacious, relaxed workshop, equipped with every tool imaginable, and
hundreds of skilled engineers who can work on the station, carefully and
thoroughly, for months at a time, testing it and getting it just right.

I would rather bet my life on the second option.