I don't think the more general US attitude of the public towards private, non-govt entities is very critical (absent any scandal/ coverup/ bribery). Here's the

I don't think the more general US attitude of the public towards private, non-govt entities is very critical (absent any scandal/ coverup/ bribery). Here's the obvious counterexample which I didn't even think was necessary to include in my previous post: if SpaceX has quite a lot of (unmanned) launch failures that cost them (or their insurers) a lot and set back their plans for demonstrating manned launch, the general public don't care and think that's overall a net positive and cost of SpaceX making progress on its plan (as long as the debris lands at sea and doesn't cause injuries or significant pollution). If SpaceX did too much of this, it would collapse, lose its launch contracts and its investors would lose their money. Compare to Facebook/Meta's failed Connectivity division [0], Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, et al. [0]: https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/12/meta-unplugs-connectivity-division-home-of-satellite-and-drone-internet-experiments/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/12/meta-unplugs-connectivity-...