Space shuttles? The fact that the government wanted to get their hands on the technology strongly suggests that they didn't voluntarily give his ship up. How many billions of dollars do you think the IASA spent putting him into space and given that they sent him there to study wormholes so that he could keep whatever he found to himself? John Crichton didn't put himself in space and didn't conduct his initial wormhole research with his own money. He was using government money and government equipment to do his research. All evidence suggests that he was an employee, not an entrepreneur.
We can also simply just assume, like I do, that the episode is badly written by a globalist with an axe to grind over the the United State's handling of the war on terror.
Space shuttles?
I'm beginning to have doubts whether you really ever saw this show. Crichton's ship was a one-man ship that's the size of something like the X-24A/B and not something like the current Space Shuttle which about the same size as a DC-9.
It doesn't really matter, though. The government has routinely abandoned hardware even as large as B-29s and allowed private individuals to recover and own them without even a cent changing hands.
Case in point; the ill-fated 1994 B-29 Kee Bird recovery expedition or the 1992 expedition to recover a P-38 ("Glacier Girl") and B-17.
We can also simply just assume, like I do, that the episode is badly written by a globalist with an axe to grind over the the United State's handling of the war on terror.
Everyone's a critic. Let's see you do better.