There's a simple explanation for that though: the government has more money, and socialises the profits.
At one point the US government was spending 4% of GDP on NASA. Not everything NASA did was possible to commercialise, but entire industries from satellite communications and air purifiers to baby formula and memory foam were created based on solving difficult problems for spacemen. All of these now mass market industries pay tax on their US operations.
Even if a corporation could spend that sort of money on a space program it couldn't hope to collect a return from every industry that grew up out of that space program.
At one point the US government was spending 4% of GDP on NASA. Not everything NASA did was possible to commercialise, but entire industries from satellite communications and air purifiers to baby formula and memory foam were created based on solving difficult problems for spacemen. All of these now mass market industries pay tax on their US operations.
Even if a corporation could spend that sort of money on a space program it couldn't hope to collect a return from every industry that grew up out of that space program.