It had a buncha crudely drawn missiles flying towards the top of the page and one spiraling down out of control. In the forground is a man in a general's uniform scowling at the dud.
The caption was something like:
Don't give me 99% reliability! Would YOU fly it?
If it were the Shuttle, I would, in a heartbeat!
n&v, the horse’s patoot has been several places, National Review did it a few years back, but still a great one, too true.
The line in the article that got me cackling was Prof. Arenas’ declaration that “NASA has developed one of the safest and risk-controlled space programs in engineering history.”. Like there’s a lot to compare with in “engineering history” of space flight.
‘Scuse me Prof, but with the limited launches and two total losses, we are running about 1 in 50 lethal/passenger ratio. Bomber pilots from WWII might have admired that, but today we wouldn’t accept it as a loss level amongst pilots flying combat missions.
That said, give me a ticket on a shuttle, it would take physical restraint to keep me off the bird, I don’t care if the odds were 50/50 of return.