What DOGE has actually struck is not the procurement budget for launch vehicles, but the destruction of the internal engineering capability to design them. The benefit of destroying that capability, in turn, greatly favors SpaceX. SpaceX doesn't want NASA to be a smart partner that builds its own rockets; it wants NASA to be nothing more than a giant wallet that just pays money.

This is a classic monopoly strategy that cloud companies used to employ all the time: destroying the customer's internal capabilities[1]

[1]https://www.medianama.com/2024/09/223-google-files-antitrust...