I love rockets.

Until recently, only governments had the deep pockets to fund them, and only giant aerospace contractors had the skills to build and launch them. 

Although the societal benefit of putting stuff into space was clear, each rocket was a unique and expensive proposition. 

Cost overruns were often enormous, and contracts were “cost plus”, where producers were paid for what they built “plus” they were paid a percentage of the total build cost as profit. 

The higher the cost of the rocket being built; the higher a company’s profits. No incentive to keep budgets under control and even unsuccessful projects result in profits for the service provider.

Pause.