What is the Safety Record of the US Space Program?
The US Space Program is a source of pride for many. We have been to the moon, started the exploration of Mars, sent manned space shuttles around the world, and walked in space. But how safe is the program? This is often hard to tell since the parameters for deciding safety can be different. Does it count when people on the ground are injured or killed, for instance? Statistics on the US Space Program can also be difficult to find since they are often lumped in with the Soviet Space Program. From that, we can say that space flights or testing conditions, as in Apollo One and X-15-3, did not occur during actual attempted launches. The overall safety record of both the US and Soviet Space Program, not including the accidents occurring in the USSR that were never reported is about a 5% rate of fatality. Including the Apollo One disaster, and in space flights or launches, 17 of the 277 people who have participated as astronauts in the US Space Program have died accidentally. Excluding Apoll
