No, and I'm asserting that it's costing >1,000 gigadollars to get it up to 99%. I analyzed it like so: If 1 out of 5 attempts fail, and I launch 'x' number of rockets, my odds of every launch being failures are (1/5)^x, which is less than 1% after just 3 rocket launches. So introducing a quality assurance program that costs 10 times as much to guarantee a 99% success rate doesn't make sense when you could launch 10 rockets without the QA program to get an effective success rate of 99.99%+. I would say 4 launches, on average. So if it costs more than 4 times as much money to implement a reusable craft, it's not worth it. Nooo, you do not skimp on costs when human life is involved. Not arguing that one, you institute the best QA program possible.If a rocket costs 100 gigadollars to construct, and 20% of launches fail, then your rocket really costs 120 gigadollars. That's a pretty big difference. Is the work to get it up to 99% really costing 20 gigadollars?
If your craft is reusable, it's even worse. Because then you spent all that money on a craft that's only good for 5 launches, on average.
What about manned craft? If the average rocket has a crew of 5, you now have a death toll of one human per launch.
That is the easy answer. The best safety policy is to ground all vehicles and require all personnel to remain home at all times, preferably cowering under heavy furniture. Any useful work entails some amount of risk, and even if the value of human life is not expressly valued, it is effectively valued by the amount of resources dedicated to safety versus getting the job done.Nooo, you do not skimp on costs when human life is involved.