Actually worked on the space shuttle program - was one of the designers for the Extended Duration Orbiter pod that was on Columbia when she went down and did part of the design and test work for the drag chute. The shuttles were great vehicles but their time up there was very limited - at best they could stay in orbit for a couple of weeks at time. Even in conjuction with a surviving orbital station they could have only stayed up for a couple of months before they would have had to come home - they just werent designed for long duration space flights.
Now if you can postulate a moon base that was dug in on the polar areas where there was access to the ice that is on the moon you could have a long term space presence - but I dont see that happening in any possible timeline that could occur during the years the game was set in.
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