[DiThi]

This is "kind of good news" in that regard: It's extremely rare for the same failure to occur twice. You can't prove there are no bugs (and Ariane 5 may have been just too lucky), but you can prove to a certain extent past problems are avoided. This is why planes are so safe nowadays.

[haikuginger]

To clarify, the parent poster isn't affected by the gambler's fallacy; rather, they're pointing out that it's common practice for any accidents involving spacecraft to be thoroughly scrutinized to ensure that the failure mode is completely understood and can be avoided in the future.

[DiThi]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant, thanks.

[amelius]

But there were two problems, not just one. 1. The communications link broke; 2. The satellite was delivered in the wrong orbit.