We somehow got used to the fact that space tech is not driven by the US government anymore, and it's the private company that runs the show.

So if Armageddon was filmed today, it would probably be SpaceX flying up to space to protect the Earth from the asteroid.

Building @kiwi 
Writing @ https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/

the vast majority of NASA projects have been contractor-built. nearly all of the things commercial space programs are doing today are refinements of things NASA did decades ago.

the standard process is the government funds cutting-edge programs that cost lots of money with little to no financial return (and pay contractors to build vehicles and equipment), then those commercial providers with experience are paid by other businesses for value-returning missions to do the things they learned to do on NASA's (taxpayer's) money.

at some point, once space infrastructure is robust enough, cutting-edge space endeavors will become value-returning from the start, and businesses will pay for those programs themselves, but we aren't quite there yet.

because knowing is finding the limits /outercorps

https://apollo11space.com/apollo-program-and-private-companies/