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Falsedawn t1_j41ncgn wrote

Reply to comment by sfxer001 in At NASA, Dr. Z Was OK With Some Missions Failing by Maxcactus

One of those philosophies also killed 3 astronauts and very nearly killed 3 more if not for some quick thinking by the crew.

So y'know, not quite that simple.

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Skyhawkson t1_j41wbbk wrote

Failure is an option if the costs are in dollars and the risk/reward ratio makes sense. Cheap cubesat demonstrators, for example, are usually more valuable done quickly rather than made 800% bulletproof.

When lives or billion-dollar missions are at stake, that's when failure isnt an option.

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ShredGuru t1_j4217o8 wrote

Pretty sure if you get as far as being an astronaut, you've already accepted the extremely dangerous nature of your job and the constant possibility of death should anything go wrong at any stage. Going into space is an inherently risky endeavor.

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Falsedawn t1_j4258rg wrote

That doesn't mean that we need to compromise safety for expediency or a mission statement. Astronauts accept the risk, but negligence due to some suit saying that you can't fail isn't acceptable levels of risk. In fact, it's external stressors (such as unreasonable expectations) that can directly lead to more mistakes than otherwise would be noted. Sacrificing safety for expediency.

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