As far as space entrepreneurs being libertarian, it depends on what level you're talking about. The dot-com millionaires running the show tend to be fairly liberal, at least the ones who have advertised their politics. The guys on the test stands and tech management, where I hung out back in the day, or down in the trenches at places like Scaled, do tend towards free market ideas. Where they do their jobs, nothing is more important than whether something works.

It's interesting that a common response to "why are colleges so leftist" is "because that's where the smart people are."

So maybe rocket scientists, whose ideas actually have to work in the real world and not just academia, tend towards political ideas that don't blow up everything in sight?

The guys I worked with probably had twice the brain power of the average political science professor, who only has to impress the gullible and other professors, not the cold equations. Just a theory, mind you.

It's been over forty years since we landed on the Moon. We haven't had a human being past Earth orbit since. If we assume that manned Moon bases, solar system exploration, and things like that are desirable, I think we've given the government its chance. 2001 was a decade ago and we just retired one of the most expensive space transporation systems in the world.

As for the socialist nations of the world, they've had forty years, too. But China's welcome to build a base on the Moon. So is Russia, France, Sweden, Uganda, or anyone else. Plenty of room out there for everyone. If it makes them feel better they can make sure there's no private property, ownership, or profit in their bases, and they can invite anyone they want to ride along and represent the Brotherhood of Nations.

It can be like the research bases in Antarctica, that have been down there in one form or another since the late 1940s. And nobody gives a shit about them.

Some of us want to build cities, deep space colonies, mines and factories. To bring endless resources home from places that don't have forests and lakes and fresh air to spoil. Pump solar energy down from where the sun always shines. Boldly go where no man has gone before, and create a pile of new wealth doing it.

"Beware the concussion!"

For the record, SpaceX is getting paid for a service to NASA, same as selling them wrenches. Whether it's a reasonable price or not is debatable.

Bigelow licensed the inflatable tech from NASA when the TransHab project was canceled.