I think you severely discount NASA's achievements. I would wager the stagnation of NASA and the subsequent rise of SpaceX was largely due to a lack of funding for NASA and waning public interest and lack of leadership.

I doubt the public would have tolerated the idea blowing up rockets until it worked as a good use of tax payer dollars. So did NASA fail us, or did the public fail NASA?

Think objectively about things, don’t just say things to echo the hivemind.

Fuck off with the notion that everything that contradicts your opinion is the "hivemind." It is supremely condescending and toxic to pretend you're the only one capable of independent thought.

They keep giving contracts to SpaceX because that's the way the budgets are mandated from congress. They have X amount of money to distribute. Everything goes to generally the lowest bidder, and because there are only a handful of options, they have to keep using one contractor to produce their parts because it's even more expensive to keep switching.

So drop the attitude. Usually the worst bidder gets the job, and it ends up costing more money after everything is said and done.

All the explosions.