The space shuttle Columbia was destroyed with all hands after it was hit by some insulating foam from its own external propellant tank [1]. The noise from its l

The space shuttle Columbia was destroyed with all hands after it was hit by some insulating foam from its own external propellant tank [1]. The noise from its launch was also a serious threat [2]. I think it is fair to call it fragile. Of course, all space launch vehicles are fragile, but for a manned vehicle the shuttle sure had tight tolerances for safe operation. Edit: I would argue that the huge mass of the (STS) oribiter was pretty much its greatest problem, and could be largely attributed to the requirement that the whole thing must be reusable. Not only was it problematic to bring all that mass down, but consider this: the system could bring almost as much mass to orbit as the Saturn V rocket [3], but almost all that capacity was consumed by the orbiter, leaving "just" 27,500 kg for payload. Of course, that is still a huge payload capacity, and the orbiter itself could, to an extent, be considered useful payload. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaste... [2] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/sound-suppression-system.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/sound-supp... [3] The maximum takeoff weight of a space shuttle orbiter was around 109,000 kg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter#Shuttle_Orbiter_Specifications_.28OV-105.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter#Shuttle_...) while the maximum LEO payload of the Satrurn V was around 140,000 kg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V).