My enthusiasm and admiration for is tempered by the knowledge that we had this with the DC-X how many years ago? Before it was killed off by the X-33 consortium?

Yes, but it was possible to kill off space development then because the level of technological development limited the people involved to mostly big governments. Ain't the case anymore.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Except that the DC-X wasn't developed by a big government. That was the reason that big government took it down. It was a threat to the huge budgets of the military-industrial complex.

Yeah. Now, a generation and a half later, big government is banking on SpaceX to do the job that big government can't or won't do and wants done.

Not all change is for the worse.

True. I'd be interested in how come SpaceX and its ilk avoided getting kneecapped by Lockheed Martin and friends.