Idea to test curvature of Earth:

It must also be noted that the shuttle was a reusable rocket system too, just a different design.

Although I heard somewhere that refurbishing the engines after each flight cost more than making new ones. 🙂

Originally posted by sonhouse
I wonder what the average success to rocket launch failures are average for the industry?

You can probably find stats somewhere for commercial rockets (the military is a bit more secretive).
I would think you would find that some designs are more reliable than others and that those that are tried and tested are more reliable but over time become less cost effective.
I doubt that SpaceX has a poor record though. I believe they have only had two launch failures so far.

I personally think NASA should get out of the rocket business altogether and let commercial suppliers compete for it. NASA should concentrate on the more specialised stuff such as satellites and landers.