Reentry vehicle sure. Launch vehicle, no. The ocean floor is littered with booster stage debris. NASA had experimented with a lot of different methods to reach orbit. And had even looked at things that SpaceX eventually built. But never had the funding to build themselves.

SpaceX is nothing but the culmination of a Reagan era fascist fever, dream. Ofdismantling good governance. Privatizing everything possible and then price gouging.