[petesergeant]

The government is expecting something in return for these breaks rather than them being some kind of gift, though.

[oblio]

The government is not monolithic and politicians might except other things than what their constituents want. It's a bad test of the value of an investment.

[petesergeant]

For sure, and it may well have been a terrible investment with terrible returns, but selling to the government and responding to government incentives is an entirely legitimate thing to do, rather than some kind of inherent weakness in a company’s model. A company being “saved” by a government contract is a company being saved by making sales to its largest customer.

[nick7376182]

And the government got it, in the form of a cost effective usa-based launch solution.

[kelnos]

Expecting, perhaps, but in general there's little to no penalty if those expectations are not realized.