@sunguramy
i study this stuff and am writing an academic book about it. And I would like to add that just because a contractor CHARGES LESS doesnt mean it COSTS LESS. It just means they have other sources of money. Shareholder pockets. R&D lines. VC money. Overhead padding on other stuff sold to private vendors. Or say, A DUDE SO RICH HE JUST WRITES BLANK CHECKS. Which both SpaceX and Blue Origin have.

If Nasa had blank checks there would be no limit to what they would or could do in the public interest. That characterized the Apollo era but starting with Nixon they have been subject to repeated slashes and cuts during development, constant moral crushing reviews.

They don't have blank checks. But what they DO have that others don't is amazing talent and civic minded people, PLUS public accountability. The people I have worked with at Nasa as a sociologist are talented, dedicated, ingenius, and brilliant (yes even efficient).

Space is hard. It is there to kill you. You can't bluff your way into space. There are no shortcuts, just deeper pockets. And the deeper the pockets the less democratic oversight, safety, or accountability. Consider that trade.

Finally I would add the only institutions on Earth who have yet landed on Mars are the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Chinese Commhnist Party. Do not de-institutionalize JPL or assume this is easy for SpaceX to do. Else we run the risk of losing that knowledge altogether, just like it's taken us 60 years to go back to the moon.