>The US government paid for those.
>
>A significant amount of them, at very least, and continues to pay.

Yes, the US has kicked in some $7-10M (depending on the reporting) as of recent. Interesting note the calculations largely consider transportation costs whilst the equipment itself is freely supplied by SpaceX - IMO not a bad deal at all. The still-ongoing cost to SpaceX is somewhere north of $20M a month; thus my phrasing "footing most of the bill".