You should compare apples to apples right? SpaceX is a government contractor. The question is, in 18 years as a contractor, have they done more impressive work

You should compare apples to apples right? SpaceX is a government contractor. The question is, in 18 years as a contractor, have they done more impressive work than other contractors. It took them 18 years to send people to space. Is that impressive for a military contractor? Just for context, project Mercury took 3 years to send someone to space. The sad thing about SpaceX is that because NASA was tasked to build a commercial space industry (funding SpaceX and others) they slowed the pace of development of the technology by limiting the funds. I'm sure if NASA made SpaceX and it's other contractors cooperate, the funds would have been spent more efficiently too.