There are three things that would factor into my decision about whether to strap myself to a rocket rather than fly in a plane: time, cost, and safety.
Musk & SpaceX are talking a lot about time and cost, but safety is obviously a lot more important. Based on data I found on the internet (so it must be true!) the loss rate for rockets is 20k - 165k higher than the fatal crash rate for airplanes over the past 20 years.
Loss rate for manned rocket launches [1]: 0.79%
Loss rate for unmanned rocket launches [1]: 6.68%
Rate of airplane crashes with at least one fatality [2]: < 0.00004%
Even if SpaceX is able to make manned space flight 10x safer, I'm not sure I'd trade 19 of the 20 hours I spent traveling from LA to South Africa this summer for a 1/1,300 chance of blowing up during launch.
[1] https://space.stackexchange.com/a/12229
[2] http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm
Musk & SpaceX are talking a lot about time and cost, but safety is obviously a lot more important. Based on data I found on the internet (so it must be true!) the loss rate for rockets is 20k - 165k higher than the fatal crash rate for airplanes over the past 20 years.
Loss rate for manned rocket launches [1]: 0.79%
Loss rate for unmanned rocket launches [1]: 6.68%
Rate of airplane crashes with at least one fatality [2]: < 0.00004%
Even if SpaceX is able to make manned space flight 10x safer, I'm not sure I'd trade 19 of the 20 hours I spent traveling from LA to South Africa this summer for a 1/1,300 chance of blowing up during launch.
[1] https://space.stackexchange.com/a/12229
[2] http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm