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Sometimes rockets fail. I mean like they blow up on launch. When the Shuttle was first commissioned, my concern at the time was that America's most reliable r

Sometimes rockets fail. I mean like they blow up on launch. When the Shuttle was first commissioned, my concern at the time was that America's most reliable rocket was the delta, which failed every thirty launches. When it's nuclear waste, it's not good enough just to have launch insurance.

cryptoz 12y ago
> When the Shuttle was first commissioned, my concern at the time was that America's most reliable rocket was the delta, which failed every thirty launches. You were right to be concerned. The shuttle had "a 40% vehicular failure rate and a flight failure rate of 1.5%", killing more people than any other space vehicle. [1] [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/04/18/5-horrifying-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-space-shuttle/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/04/18/5-hor...
- whoopdedo 12y ago
  And the space shuttles carried many more people than other space vehicles except for the current generation of Soyuz. You don't measure failure rate by number built divided by number crashed. You measure by how much it's used. The more often something is used the more likely it it that it will fail one of those times.
  - cryptoz 12y ago
    Sure, but the 1.5% flight failure rate is completely unacceptable when you're sending up hundreds of flights with humans on board. Surely, with all the safety precautions that NASA is known for, we'd be targeting a flight failure rate of << 1%.
  - wukerplank 12y ago
    The problem with nuclear waste is that you need a 0% failure rate or you might detonate a dirty bomb in the atmosphere. It doesn't matter how often it worked if it fails once. Also it's a great target for sabotage for radicals.
    - lmm 12y ago
      > you might detonate a dirty bomb in the atmosphere Which would put less radioactive material up there than coal power plants already do as a matter of course.
      - wongarsu 12y ago
        But it's a bit hard to say at which altitude the failure would occur. Plenty of rockets have exploded on the launch pad.
  - lmm 12y ago
    > You don't measure failure rate by number built divided by number crashed. Sure, you measure by number of launches divided by number crashed - or some similar measure that includes how much utility you get out of it. But the Shuttle does very poorly on any such measure.

cryptoz 12y ago

> When the Shuttle was first commissioned, my concern at the time was that America's most reliable rocket was the delta, which failed every thirty launches. You were right to be concerned. The shuttle had "a 40% vehicular failure rate and a flight failure rate of 1.5%", killing more people than any other space vehicle. [1] [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/04/18/5-horrifying-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-space-shuttle/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/04/18/5-hor...

whoopdedo 12y ago
And the space shuttles carried many more people than other space vehicles except for the current generation of Soyuz. You don't measure failure rate by number built divided by number crashed. You measure by how much it's used. The more often something is used the more likely it it that it will fail one of those times.
- cryptoz 12y ago
  Sure, but the 1.5% flight failure rate is completely unacceptable when you're sending up hundreds of flights with humans on board. Surely, with all the safety precautions that NASA is known for, we'd be targeting a flight failure rate of << 1%.
- wukerplank 12y ago
  The problem with nuclear waste is that you need a 0% failure rate or you might detonate a dirty bomb in the atmosphere. It doesn't matter how often it worked if it fails once. Also it's a great target for sabotage for radicals.
  - lmm 12y ago
    > you might detonate a dirty bomb in the atmosphere Which would put less radioactive material up there than coal power plants already do as a matter of course.
    - wongarsu 12y ago
      But it's a bit hard to say at which altitude the failure would occur. Plenty of rockets have exploded on the launch pad.
- lmm 12y ago
  > You don't measure failure rate by number built divided by number crashed. Sure, you measure by number of launches divided by number crashed - or some similar measure that includes how much utility you get out of it. But the Shuttle does very poorly on any such measure.