
I think you've got an off-by-one error in your memory. :-)  MM bought the
satellite-building side of GE.  E, not D.  MM and GD are still competitors.


Better, yes, but we're not talking order of magnitude.  (Especially if you
want to use Titan IV, which belongs to the USAF, not MM.)


Sure, you can get a heavylift launcher fairly cheap if you do it privately
rather than as a gummint project.  But we're still talking about something
that will cost nine digits per launch, unless you can guarantee a large
market to justify volume production.