Here is the scary thing, if by "could" you mean legally, what (space or non-space) projects, presumably to help fix something, something big, could a government of a nation do, that was allowed in the current international regulatory environment? (and by regulations, I mean the kinds that limit
countries.)
We might ask a completely different question. What large project could we do today, which is likely to be looked back upon with rose-tinted glasses, by the next generation? Is that a loaded question? Well, of course, but so was the original question, and one must understand why, in order to construct a solution to it.
All of the great other things governments used to do, like in the US all the things done during the Great Depression, all of the big programs like Social Security, Medicare, the WPA, public works and so on, are all off the table now.
Whatever new action of any kind they do generally has to be the most minimal possible. To use the exact phrase, everything has to be
minimally trade restrictive. Which has specific legal definitions.
Government 'measures' everything they do, basically, have to be "not more restrictive than necessary to ensure the quality of the service".
Note that this only applies to measures by governments at the Federal, state and local levels (or the actions of all quasi-governmental entities defined by whether they use some tax money. In other words are subsidized, which could be in non-direct ways too. Certain laws, like minimum wage laws may be seen as a government subsidy.)
Also governments can continue things that they did in the past in
exactly the same way as long as NOTHING is changed even a tiny bit. If they change them it has to be in the direction of reducing of non-conforming measures or eliminating them.
Would space programs be a 'measure?' Thats a good question but its probably irrelevant because the US and other countries already subcontract out space quite a bit commercially.
So they likely cant go back to not doing that. Since that is deregulation (privatization = deregulation) its "ratcheted" (locked) in.