Not only did NASA help create and enable SpaceX, they were one of the primary early customers, with about half of SpaceX’s revenue coming from government contracts. [1] Apparently government is involved with all space entrepreneurship to some degree or another.
One thing that people also aren’t pointing out is that Space is considered a multi-trillion dollar market for whoever can access it due to the Wild West “if you can reach it, it’s yours” resource policies, which is why it attracts so much investment for long term projects. Many sectors that need investment in fundamental research don’t have those properties (untapped, unclaimed resources you can look to the sky and see), and therefore don’t attract the same kind of money.
One thing that people also aren’t pointing out is that Space is considered a multi-trillion dollar market for whoever can access it due to the Wild West “if you can reach it, it’s yours” resource policies, which is why it attracts so much investment for long term projects. Many sectors that need investment in fundamental research don’t have those properties (untapped, unclaimed resources you can look to the sky and see), and therefore don’t attract the same kind of money.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/18/18683455/nasa-space-angel...