[alx_the_new_guy]

> why is it the only space organization (including NASA) able to innovate and ship anymore

Willingness and the ability to try and fail.

They haven't really invented anything conceptually new, it's just NASA has to play politics to get it's funding.

[WalterBright]

> They haven't really invented anything conceptually new

Concepts are a dime a dozen. Making them work is where the real contribution lies.

[m00x]

They have lost interest in actually shipping things since they get paid to do nothing anyway.

Same happens in big organizations like IBM, Yahoo, and now Google. Urgency to deliver results is missing from a lot of orgs, especially the public sector.

[ozr]

Blue Origin doesn't have to, and had much more investment. Virgin, too.

It's not just SpaceX outperforming NASA, it's SpaceX outperforming everyone.

[lupusreal]

SpaceX critics often forget (or more likely, never knew in the first place) that Bezos-backed Blue Origin was founded before SpaceX. The way they describe it, any rocket company backed by a very rich guy would have been destined for SpaceX's success, but that clearly just isn't true.