"You've got the right idea, but I doubt it will happen this way. The pattern is for companies to wait until government takes the big risks and makes the initial investments, then they move in and cream the profits off the top. I worked for years in the remote sensing/image processing industry and that's what happened there when the Reagan administration "privatized" the technology. It was essentially a giveaway to the private sector, and to add insult to injury, the companies lobbied to have their profits guaranteed by the Fed. Something very similar happened with nuclear power, not only did the Feds do the initial research and funding, they turned over the technology to the utilities and even subsidized their insurance costs, as well as provide regulation and "public relations" to reassure the public. The companies never did make the investment to manage the wastes, they kept on demanding the government do it, and that has pretty much finished that industry in the US."

Of course taking risks is exactly what govt does so poorly- but with the tax payer paying the bill they do have the deep pocket to squander vast fortunes. Additionally govt by it's bad policy has added to risks that impose cost on the private sector- if the govt were merely remove these risk that's imposed on a private sector [and this would have little or no cost to tax payer] then that alone may be sufficent. Additionally govt mere involvement in the space imposes risks- competitors can use govt funding to nullify any capital investment advantage.

And as far as nuclear waste, this mostly a goverment generated problem. Storing waste at the site- is not cost free. Just ask yourself what private business routinuely stores garbage at their work site for decades [other business such a junkyards or private garbage dumps:].

But I do agree that this has been the pattern and it's possible that this will continue- but if that is actually the case then the US will not be first to colonize space. After decades and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, it's fairly obvious that this model simply do not work [we are further from the Moon today than during Apollo- if you don't count other progress made in general technology, such as improved electronic and material science. But we have managed grow a large govt job program which I'm sure bring some happiness to a small portion of it's citizens].

"Sometimes the government has to bite the bullet and make the initial investment and risk to get a vital industry rolling, but that should be done up front and under public scrutiny and congressional oversight. What we have now is just welfare for the corporations under a disguise of a lot of free market rhetoric."

Well, the public is pretty tired of the govt biting bullets- and if socialism actually worked, we would speaking Russian. No, the govt is bureaucracy and bureaucracies have their own rules and interests- and serving the public is something they may remember to say they doing, but it's never something they do.