You need more than $20million to build a reusable rocket company, a cold fusion reactor, or any number of other deep tech startups that require enormous investments which will likely never come from risk-averse governments.

Nuclear explosions and energy were initially developed because of military purposes. Rockets were developed for military purposes. I dont think the history of those things indicate we need rich individuals to make them.

NASA has developed into a bureaucratic machine with risk averse incentives.

The power of the state when it throws its weight behind something is awe-inspiring but the power of decentralized innovation leads to tinkering and unexpected breakthroughs that a government run project wouldn’t permit (due to the number of unnecessary bureaucracy and box checking)

> NASA has developed into a bureaucratic machine with risk averse incentives.

Consider that once companies got involved in space they had incentive to lobby congress to make NASA less competitive.