From the very beginning, SF was meant to delve into real possibilities rather than take us into the world of the extremely unrealistic.

Yes, some scifi is quite fanciful and bizzarre but the serious people in the industry and for that matter most of its leading writers are trying to imagine real possibilities....the "company" and the "government" will always have leading roles because the reality on the ground is that most large projects are one or the other in terms of ownership.

Consider the entire "Alien" series--they are almost one and the same.

In most any universe, an interplanetary vehicle wouldnt be a cheap endeavour. It would be built at great cost and for a useful reason. Only a compamy or a government would really get involved in such things these days.

Now that said, the classical scifi of Jules Verne and HG Wells would suggest wealthy individuals (via their company) lead the charge to progress. In rare cases we have the madman (mad scientist) who has gone places the company or the government cant or wont go but it is rarely explained how he funds the projects (although perhaps Disneys "The Black Hole" is the best of these where the mad scientist has robots take over a government funded multibillion dollar space probe and steals it, disappearing for decades and thought lost....)

The point is that in SF the reality of cost isnt generally ignored....just as if it were real it is imagined that a problem existed and was solved at great expense by people.....that pretty well assures a government or corporate entity.

I'm often amazed at how much of SF is dedicated to economics--Phil Dick and Fred Pohl both spend a lot of time on the mundane aspects of money in the future, to very good effect.

Again the word "science" is part of science fiction and science encompasses economics, physics, and more......

Ever read "The Man who sold the Moon"? Economics makes for some of the best science fiction of all......

I'll look for it.