EDIT: This is in reply to a deleted question about the impact of an inevitable commercial spacecraft failure.
Great question. In my mind, I compare this to the stigmatization of nuclear power. The combination of the public's lack of trust in science, along with the media's ceaseless quest for sensational (and often fear-based) stories has led to an overly-cautious approach to spaceflight (IMO). This has severely impacted our progress in space exploration; 43 years after the moon landing, we have no active human exploration programs outside the ISS. Embarrassing.
I'm all for improving flight safety and avoiding needless loss of life, but I also believe in taking risks to achieve important goals. Space exploration is worth the risk.
For commercial satellite launches, I see relatively little impact. Existing launch vehicles do not have a 100% success track record, and customers will cover the loss with insurance.
The biggest concern is with manned flights. I'm not really qualified to predict the outcome, but I really hope that pragmatism will prevail. As engineers, we do the best we can, but failures are inevitable. We simply do our best to learn from the failure and take those learnings back to the lab on the next iteration.
Sorry about that. I felt like a wet blanket asking about the consequences of disaster when this seems like a time for celebration, so I deleted my question.
Thank you for the time you spent crafting such a thoroughly amazing answer. I hope that most people will still feel as you do even after the first true commercial manned spaceflight disaster.
Great question. In my mind, I compare this to the stigmatization of nuclear power. The combination of the public's lack of trust in science, along with the media's ceaseless quest for sensational (and often fear-based) stories has led to an overly-cautious approach to spaceflight (IMO). This has severely impacted our progress in space exploration; 43 years after the moon landing, we have no active human exploration programs outside the ISS. Embarrassing.
I'm all for improving flight safety and avoiding needless loss of life, but I also believe in taking risks to achieve important goals. Space exploration is worth the risk.
For commercial satellite launches, I see relatively little impact. Existing launch vehicles do not have a 100% success track record, and customers will cover the loss with insurance.
The biggest concern is with manned flights. I'm not really qualified to predict the outcome, but I really hope that pragmatism will prevail. As engineers, we do the best we can, but failures are inevitable. We simply do our best to learn from the failure and take those learnings back to the lab on the next iteration.