I am more of an aero than a space guy, so there is that. While everybody sees the risk of loosing prototypes during testing as almost likely, and non-desastrous as long as there is no loss of life (which was far more accepted until, say, the 60s), nobody would call a failed flight test resulting in a complete hull loss a sucess. The testing until failure happens on component and system level before anything flies the first time.
Maybe actual space rockets arw different, after all those used to be expandable anyway, but still launch failures, and failing to get out of the atmosphere is a failure, shouldn't be seen as sucess of any kind.
As a co worker of mine once out it: Everything flies if you apply enough thrust to it. Doing so in a controlled in safe manner is the trick.
Maybe actual space rockets arw different, after all those used to be expandable anyway, but still launch failures, and failing to get out of the atmosphere is a failure, shouldn't be seen as sucess of any kind.
As a co worker of mine once out it: Everything flies if you apply enough thrust to it. Doing so in a controlled in safe manner is the trick.