SpaceX

[ThomCa-ching]

You are talking about something completely different. NASA of yester year and the space race then is completely different than now. Competition drove us to get there. Less red tape. We have no drive right now. I expect failure rates to be high and that's acceptable but the number of launches the U.S. had was substantially higher and thus proved reliability in the end.

It doesn't matter if space exploration benefits everyone, people want to know what the science returns on initial investments are going to be. To be honest, space is kinda a luxery. We really don't need to go to the planets and don't need to put stuff in space to survive. It benefits mankind no doubt but the public (or government) would rather pay for wars and bailouts.

Comparing to aircraft is like calling a carrot as tasty as an apple. In half a century we have gotten no further (if not less further) in space. There is not an economic need other than scientific purposes right now (excluding telecom stuff).