Sometimes just knowing that something is possible enables replication, which I bet is the case here. It’s only rocket science (rather than say jet turbine science that involves a lot of hard to uncover secrets).

My brother in-law is the VP engineering of an competitor to LinkSpace. No they didn't steal it. They don't even have access of Google!

Private aerospace startups face huge push backs from state-owned agencies for two apparent reasons: (1) most of the engineers of the startups left their job in those agencies for these startups. (2) The progresses these startups made expose how slow, bloated and inefficient the government-run agencies are. As a result of the hostility, the startups have little access to suppliers and testing facilities etc., not to mention the technological know-hows.

You’re being downvoted but this seems like a very legitimate question seeing as a major part of the current US/China trade dispute is appropriation of intellectual property

In my opinion the most likely explanation is that they actually have a decent engineering team.

Is all blatantly stolen from Tintin.

It's not necessarily either steal or innovated a new way right? People don't have to steal ideas to invent the circle-shaped wheel.

I don't think they have any more access to the inner workings of a SpaceX rocket than you'd get from a Google search. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the inner workings are classified. It definitely at least falls under ITAR

So ? if stealing means imitating how the existing technology and figuring out how it works then its a fast and efficient way to learn something.

I remember that in the past, it was common for hackers criticize the concept of "intellectual property" and all exaggerated laws created to enforce it much after the original creator death. These times are over. In the new current ideology, people which doesn't follow these "laws" (which are US internal laws, that not all countries follow in the same way because not all countries agreed with the same international deals) are thieves who "steal" things.