[ijpoijpoihpiuoh]

I would guess that if you broke it down, being in space is quite safe, but getting to space is extremely dangerous. This matches intuition, since in the former case you are just floating in freefall, but in the latter case you are seated atop a metal tube filled with explosive chemicals travelling at absurd speeds through an atmosphere.

[Robotbeat]

Very true. Of course, passenger aviation is really pretty similar... you're inside a pressurized metal tube (with relatively small factors of safety) surrounded by explosive chemicals traveling nearly the speed of sound (absurd by ordinary standards), yet it's far safer than any mode of transport, even per hour. Engineering is pretty crazy. If there's strong enough incentive to make an activity absurdly safe, we can do so, even if the performance requirements are also very stringent.