nasa and statistics

a serious failure is between 1 and 2 per cent a launch, or between 24

and 43 per cent over the 28 missions still planned"

Griffin's no dummy - what he really wants to say (but can't do so

explicitly because it would be so impolitic) is that he considers the

risks acceptable, given that the alternative is to declare the shuttle

program done because they can't retroactively fix this design flaw.