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?

Question

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?

In:

Answer 1

Rockets are very complex and operate as close to the limit of their materials as we can. That means there are both more things that can break and they’re more likely to break since they’re under a lot of stress. That’s why we have so many launch aborts. If there’s a minor failure that mission control can’t work around, it’s better to scrub the mission and try again later. Otherwise, it risks a failure in flight which is often catastrophic. A rocket isn’t like an airplane that can fly with an engine out or an instrument failure.