although that tends to be the case. However, for many government contracts, the bidder has to show the ability to perform the tasks defined in the Statement of Work (SOW) in order to win. There are often many other factors, such as company stability, track record, and political influence that can swing a contract award. All other things being equal, then the lowest bidder will usually win. Sometimes, a company will win with a more expensive proposal if they can show their solution is better or has lower risk. However, a small mom & pop shop isn't going to win a major development and production contract even if they have the lowest bid simply because they wouldn't have the ability to deliver.

Most if not all of those Apollo era contracts were "cost-plus", meaning the contractor was covered if there were overruns. Cost-plus contracts are still fairly common for high risk developments. During the 1960s, NASA was seized with "Go Fever" with an unofficial motto of "Waste anything but time." Overruns were the norm for much of the space program and continue to this day. Even the Department of Defense appears to have a better track record than NASA at bringing in big projects on time and at cost.