At the September 13, 2016 House Commercial Space Subcommittee hearing in Camden County, Spaceport Camden aerospace industry consultant Andrew Nelson testified that, for the purpose of safety, the success rate of currently active vertical launch vehicles in the U.S. is approximately 99%.
Spaceport Camden is committed to transparency. So in the interest of public information, below is the full calculation as well as an introduction to the methodology as it is important to understand how failure or success are defined for the purpose of safety.
Just click on the image below for the analysis.
Update:
Mr. Nelson also published a guest column in the local Tribune & Georgian today, Sept. 22, that explains the approach. If you’re a subscriber, you can find your current issue here. We have also made the text available here.
