We've established that government can do pretty impressive science projects, assuming you have a lot more money laying around than you need.

But "practical?" The James Webb Telescope is wildly over budget, and eating other science programs. At present, the estimated cost of the project including a 5 year operating budget is almost 9 billion dollars.

My friends and I have had late night discussions on how space travel would have developed without something like NASA. We agreed that it would have taken more time to do things like land someone on the Moon, but it would have developed along a more "step by step" approach as was visualized in the dawn of space travel, like what Willy Ley wrote about in the 50s.

Note that Mt. Palomar, Mt. Wilson, Lick, and a number of other conventional observatories were privately funded. With "robber baron" loot, no less.