A different Space Ship

We need to develop a craft for purely space travel!

One that is intended to travel only in a light gravity environment meaning that it never needs to land it is a ship built to permanently exist in space. A very large ship. One that is larger than the shuttle. One that has enough space to allow long term exploration and deployment of communications/observation probes. I want this ship to be used to place satellites with visual and audio communications in our solar system.

This ship would be the first phase in development of a new class of ships. The second phase would involve placing these satellites in other solar systems and utilizing what was learned in phase 1. This costs money but with current technology the government can do this. If these ships operate remotely we can minimize the costs and complexity of life support systems and the space needed for human space flight. These would be automated science ships tasked with deploying our probes and creating a network in space.

1. Assembly needs to be in a zero gravity environment.
2. We need to assemble this ship in components.

By assembling this in zero gravity we can take advantage of existing and proven heavy lift technologies. This will allow us to build a ship that doesn't have to be capable of breaking out of earths gravity.

By us building this ship in components we can make it larger. We can lift and assemble the frame. We can lift and attach the shell. We can lift and install segment by segment. We can lift dozens of components to the ship. This ship would allow us to test many new experimental systems combined with proven systems for long range space flight of large vessels. Eventually the technologies used can be applied to future human space flight ships.