>>21411I somewhat want to agree with you but the data doesn't. In a way it reflects the behavior AES countries in regard to economy, it's clear you need states and governments to organize and pay upfront for the beginning of a space program, because technological and manufacture knowledge are commodities that need to be accumulated in a coherent manner for a full fledged economy to develop and opportunities to appear. For example a cryogenic engine is twenty years of development for a big country, no business can pay for that development… but they can refine and exploit it.
But that's it, planned economies crunched or collapsed, pure state owned space programs ossified or are repeating missions that "only" have scientific value and we are here now, so even an AES country like China is pursuing market based strategy because they chase what works, and anyone looking to the future expects humanity to spread out in the solar system.
Maybe it's just time to not put space industry in a special place full of that cold war glitter and human accomplishment and consider it's now just infrastructure building and commercial enterprise that obeys to market conditions in a capitalist mode of production. We built railroads and locomotives in the past, we're building rockets and satellites now, with capitalism.