Ironically there were far more contractors in the past. Just look at the journey COTS, form Orbital -> Orbital ATK -> NG. > Up until recently, there was no pr

Ironically there were far more contractors in the past. Just look at the journey COTS, form Orbital -> Orbital ATK -> NG. > Up until recently, there was no profit motive to create private rockets Had the government not artificially pushed Shuttle, there would actually have been a quite large commercial market. A US launch vehicle could very much have competed against Ariane 3 and Soyuz. > And no, you can't just force them to shoulder risk. Rocket launches in the 90s were not some crazy future risk. Doing a COTS style program for rockets was 100% viable. > If we wanted someone we could force risk onto, we would need a public entity that designs and manufactures the rockets. No you only need a public entity willing to buy a a lot of launches.