Remember that most of SpaceX&#x27;s core technology was literally given to them by NASA, and on top of that they&#x27;re getting guaranteed contracts by the government (i.e. the dreaded government funding - they don&#x27;t know how to allocate capital, right?).<p>Even the landing of the first stage was mostly based on NASA research. Which by the way, NASA had achieved long ago.<p>SpaceX innovated with their cost cutting, and maybe now their manufacturing processes, and by being lucky by benefitting from a period of cost cutting by NASA whereby they could hire a bunch of NASA engineers&#x2F;scientists.