As awesome as it was in concept, that thing was a safety nightmare from the very beginning. With every other manned spacecraft if something goes wrong during launch you can blast off and land the capsule safely in the ocean, but with the shuttle there were large portions of the ascent and descent profiles where, if something went wrong, you were going too fast to turn around but too slow to make it to space so you were just hosed.
My understanding is that the risk of riding in a private aircraft is comparable to the risk of riding on a motorcycle. The "private airplanes" category is skewed significantly by the "experimental" class of airplanes, which includes shit that some guy built out of a mail order kit.
Transportation safety comparison. Private vs commercial airplanes. I'm not really sure what to conclude from these stats besides "don't go in a space shuttle."
As awesome as it was in concept, that thing was a safety nightmare from the very beginning. With every other manned spacecraft if something goes wrong during launch you can blast off and land the capsule safely in the ocean, but with the shuttle there were large portions of the ascent and descent profiles where, if something went wrong, you were going too fast to turn around but too slow to make it to space so you were just hosed.
What do you mean? Of course gaps in your abort system are perfectly safe. Who even needs an abort system that works the duration of the flight?
My understanding is that the risk of riding in a private aircraft is comparable to the risk of riding on a motorcycle. The "private airplanes" category is skewed significantly by the "experimental" class of airplanes, which includes shit that some guy built out of a mail order kit.