[nooron]

US government contracts account for 70%+ of SpaceX’s revenues through 2018. Can’t speculate about since. I like SpaceX but it’s just untrue that they weren’t highly dependent on US gov’t contracts for a long time (which itself is the product of space market liberalization by Obama in 2010).

[timschmidt]

Seems like SpaceX was also the lowest cost provider of launch services during that entire time period. Can't blame the government for shopping around.

[nooron]

I don't. I think it's great.

[tempnow987]

So the government does fund space companies - including slush amounts for things like "launch availability" and launch readiness / quick launch capabilities which are ways to try to keep the reported per launch costs down.

For both National Security and other missions SpaceX is FAR cheaper. I'm not sure if that still counts as government "largesse" - which is more about a generous gift or contract. To keep more than one provider in mix the government has been doing some largesse to try to get some money to other providers.