Originally Posted by
Radials Rule
Private contractors along with NASA and several other government entities
Mercury spacecraft was designed and built by McDonnell Aircraft. Neighbors in St. Louis tucked the astronauts on board. North American Aviation designed and built the Apollo command module. A professor of mine in college was their project manager. The NASA personnel were the program managers. They were not the engineers, designers, and constructors.
Just like the Air Force did not engineer, design, and build the F-15. They wrote the specifications and were the program managers.