On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:26:09 +0000
David Shaw <dj.shaw@btconnect.com> wrote:

Hello David,

>I was told - many years ago, so things may well have changed since -
>that rocket flight was considered so risky that it cost as much to
>insure a rocket as to build it, so nobody bothered.  The fact that one

I'd not heard that, but it sounds perfectly reasonable since, back in
the early days of rocketry, there was no statistical data upon which to
base the risk calculations.

>company will now offer such insurance tends to suggest that the
>perceived risk is now lower - or that there are a lot of financially
>inept people in rocketing  ;-)

Or that there are a lot of mathematically inept people working as
actuaries.   :-)

It's probably a bit like flying in that, as long as nothing goes wrong,
everything's fine.  However, if it *does* go wrong, it's "Sayonara"
time for quite a large number of the people on board.

--
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         / )           "The blindingly obvious is
        / _)rad        never immediately apparent"
The public wants what the public gets
Going Underground - The Jam