I don't know who owned what, but many components of the Apollo era space program were manufactured by privately owned companies that received taxpayer funding: Grumman, Boeing, Rockwell, Douglass, and IBM to name a few.

I know the history well about the involvement of private contractors, the difference is that in the end, NASA, a government agency owned the tech and the public benefited massively from NASA and continues to benefit today. Basically every tax paying American was a shareholder in that greatness.

I bet you one thing for sure, if this didn't have Elon Musk smell on it, and it was a government funded project, it would have 2500 upvotes. I can tell you that for sure. Just most people are afraid to speak their mind because...well you know, the flagging and down votes. Which I couldn't care less about, I think this whole down voting ideas you don't like game is rather stupid. This community has not evolved in years.

300 something upvotes for something "this big" as opposed to the 2500+ yesterday about Google's anti-side loading efforts should tell you that.