SpaceX has quite a few engineers that learned the practical details of rocketry on the government’s dime. Be it at NASA or Boeing or an aerospace department at a university that gets government funding. I don’t mean to detract from SpaceX’s accomplishment, but they “bootstrapped” themselves the way a rich kid starts a company using the resources and connections put in place by his “family”.
So Blue Origin... they started earlier yet lag behind SpaceX with an even richer person backing the company, so it doesn't seem to be rich kid starts a company that makes the difference
