I wouldn't call, say, SpaceX building the Falcon 9 as it exists today anything like a "moonshot". It didn't require an upfront cash injection of billions, and a

I wouldn't call, say, SpaceX building the Falcon 9 as it exists today anything like a "moonshot". It didn't require an upfront cash injection of billions, and after getting out of the initial stage and into the viable business stage it's been generally cash flow positive. Tons of other orgs could have done the same thing with a comparatively modest investment. Again, this isn't moonshot territory, this is in the realm of crappy little startups doing crappy little questionably viable things who get a few hundred million in VC then mostly just fizzle out. There are a hojillion of those, and that's the scale of investment needed to start building a reusable rocket company. Nobody else is doing it not because it's exceptionally expensive, but rather because they don't know how.