Even going to war involved a huge mass of people, which made it easier to get statistical safety for the insurance company. For writing insurance the fact that

Even going to war involved a huge mass of people, which made it easier to get statistical safety for the insurance company. For writing insurance the fact that just 24 people ever (even to this day!) have left Earth orbit meant that the risk pool just wasn't very large. Very small group and large, unknown risk- that's the sort of thing that an actuary really doesn't like working with. Like, if Apollo 13 didn't make it home, that's 1/8th of the total insurance population right there. What kind of price do you need to charge to cover that level of risk?