Any objective review of the projects and what they entailed will conclude that it couldn't have been done without the government.

I'm all for the private sector, but there are some big theoretical projects that they will not/cannot do in terms of research, prototypes, etc. without help from governments.

The moonshot and the Manhattan Project were exactly that.....massive projects that were possible in theory, but a) not certain and b) prohibitively expensive for private enterprise.  They clearly would not have happened without government.

Oh....and you might want to read up on the history of the very internet that you are using to post your comments....yep....that too came from the government initially.