The Earth economy still runs on basic capitalism; the corporations
under-write surveying and exploitation of planets, in some cases then
selling what they find to the government in return for a piece of the
profits, or via direct exploitation itself. (By law they're forbidden
from exploiting or strip-mining worlds with sentient life.) There is
also, as we discover in one episode, a big market for archaeologists
who dig into now-dead worlds for whatever technology they can find, which
might have been ancient there, but are new to us.

There are a whole bunch of ships in Earthforce; it's been ten years
since the war, and they've had considerable time to regroup.

Currently we're closed to specs, but that may change in year two.

jms