SpaceX didn’t just land on top of the space game by sheer innovation alone—it rode a $20 billion rocket fueled by U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Since 2008, NASA and the Pentagon have been SpaceX’s biggest investors, throwing billions at Elon Musk’s space ambitions under the guise of “contracts.”
NASA’s Open Wallet:
-$3B for ISS cargo missions.
-$2.6B to taxi astronauts to space and back.
-$2.9B (plus another $1.15B) for Starship to land on the Moon.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
The Pentagon’s Classified Piggy Bank:
-$316M for national security launches.
-Billions in covert spy satellite deliveries.
-$70M+ for Starlink to become the U.S. military’s private internet provider.
So while Musk plays the self-made genius card, reality says otherwise.
His biggest customer isn’t the free market—it’s Uncle Sam, footing the bill while SpaceX cashes in.