Since the space program began in the early 1960s, there has been talk of the possible commercial exploitation of space. One of the earliest satellites launched into space was the giant metallic Mylar balloon called "Echo." Radio signals were reflected from the satellite in an early test of satellite communications. By the early part of the twenty-first century, the space around Earth was filled with commercial communications satellites. Television, radio, telephone, data transfer, and many other forms of information pass through these satellite systems. Excluding the use of two cans and a piece of string, it would be hard to find any form of information transfer that does not involve satellites.

In the early days of space exploration, many people thought that the apparent weightlessness in orbiting satellites would allow for types of manufacturing that would not be possible in a normal gravity environment...