Was the US Space Programme really dependent on private investment like in Moonraker (1979)?

Dragonpol

What prompts the question is the following passage taken from Chapter 4 ('Hugo Drax at Home') in Christopher Wood's novelisation of the film he was also the sole scriptwriter for, James Bond and Moonraker (1979):

'I think you only have to look five hundred miles west than the site of its [the Moonraker space shuttle's] disappearance. Russia, Mr Bond!' The false joviality dropped from Drax's voice. A tiny pinpoint of red appeared in his distorted eyes to complement the scarlet flush of his cheek. 'Thanks to our pusillanimous government we have surrendered space to them. Do you realize that I, a private individual, am responsible for nearly forty per cent of the American space programme? It is scandalous, is it not?'
'It sounds a very patriotic gesture,' observed Bond.
'It is not really patriotism,' said Drax nobly. 'I do not believe that one country should be in a position to occupy space as in the old days a colonial nation might have acquired new territory. This is what the Americans are in danger of allowing to happen.' He smiled an ugly smile. 'With their experience of the British, you would think that they would know better.' (James Bond and Moonraker (1979), (Triad/Panther Books, paperback edn, Herts, 1979), pp. 48-49.

Now this passage obviously occurs in the same scene where Bond first meets Drax in the film, though this added dialogue from Wood's novelisation is obviously not present in the film version of Moonraker. There are a few remnants of its private investment backstory in the finished film too, though it is not spelled out quite as explicitly there as it is in the Wood novelisation of the film.

For me, it raises the interesting real world question of whether Drax's claim of being the private individual investing in nearly forty per cent of the US Space Programme was a true statement of fact or just another piece of fiction from Bond's shinier world to explain Drax's involvement with the US Space Programme and most notably the Moonraker space shuttle he has designed and that the US Space Programme is using. When you think about it the original Sir Hugo in Ian Fleming's Moonraker (1955) novel was also a private individual who financed Britain's Moonraker nuclear deterrent rocket out of his own pocket. In fact, it was the very reason for which he received his knighthood from the Queen!

We know that Drax is a philanthropist in the film, but is this fascinating added detail from the film novelisation a true statement of fact, or just a further example of fiction in what was already one of the most outlandish films in the Bond series. As I'm no expert on the US Space Programme, I turn this question over to members here in the hope that someone out there can help me out! Thanks in advance, as always! :)

PropertyOfALady

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is owned by the United States Government and cannot be invested in on the stock market. Therefore it's 'just a further example of fiction in what was already one of the most outlandish films in the Bond series' and 'just another piece of fiction from Bond's shinier world to explain Drax's involvement with the US Space Programme'.

BMW_with_missiles

Although the space shuttles were a NASA project, they were assembled by the company Rockwell International; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_International. Quoting this article:

"With the death of company founder and first CEO Willard F. Rockwell in 1978, and the stepping down of his son Willard Rockwell, Jr. in 1979 as the second CEO, Bob Anderson became CEO and led the company through the 1980s when it became the largest U.S. defense contractor and largest NASA contractor."

So, in a way, Bob Anderson could make a similar claim to that of Drax, being CEO of the company that built the shuttle program, but he certainly didn't finance it. Financing, of course, came from the U.S. government and, by connection, the American taxpayer.

Troy

But it did depend on Nazi scientists and engineers