It’s been more than 40 years since the first successful space shuttle launch. However, as we saw with the recent NASA launch, we still have launch failures. Why is it so tough to achieve reliability in space shuttle launches? Does this apply to all space technology?
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One big consideration is weight vs fuel. If 90% of a rocket is fuel, just to get to near earth orbit, every pound of structure needs 9 pounds of fuel. So the fuel tank needs to be bigger, etc etc etc. Going to Geostationary orbit? More fuel, so more weight. Moon? Mars? Things get heavy really fast.
You can build a bridge to 150% of strength as a back up for worst case situations and aging, and the bridge won’t be that much bigger. It will be heavier, and a rocket fuel/energy budget can’t afford that. That means everything needs to be built – just strong enough – to do the job, and maybe just a little bit more, but no more.
At that point, then you’re into the weeds of vibration, wind shear, rain, turbulence, and other factors that could go past that little bit more. That’s the engineering challenge.
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