[sydthrowaway]

As long as the space industry is hampered by ITAR, it will go nowhere (unless you're OK with chumming up with the U.S Military Industrial Complex)

[njarboe]

SpaceX has sure gone somewhere and is still moving at a very fast pace. They have very few U.S. Military contracts and had to sue to be able to compete for those.

[lutorm]

The only problem is that it limits the talent pool and to whom you can offer your services. You don't have to interact with the military-industrial complex, only the US State Department.