The US government sent astronauts to the literal moon 60+ years ago. This is the true failure of capitalism--the difference between people working on a project for the passion and the challenge of it... and a bunch of people working on a project because they want to scrounge up a paycheck to survive and benefit themselves. I'm sure the Space-X engineers are passionate, but the type of people you need to truly design next-gen tech will only be found at an institution like NASA where they will truly believe in the mission.
People can lie and put up whatever fascia they want, but I don't think it's possible to truly give 100% when you know your efforts are going primarily toward support some jackass billionaire instead of a nation of your beloved peers.