[spacemark]

>Imagine working on something for over a decade only to see it fly just 7 times!

Haha, I'm guessing you don't work in the space industry. Frankly if something you work on gets to space at all you count yourself fortunate. My first job was at a defense contractor working on a big rocket. A senior engineer on our team had a picture of the Indiana Jones warehouse on the wall in his office, rows and rows of boxes. I asked him why, he said it's a reminder to not get too stressed about work - 9 out of 10 projects will never fly.

Things are changing especially in the new space corners of the industry, but for big projects requiring political will I think it's still the same.

[nordsieck]

> My first job was at a defense contractor working on a big rocket.

Out of curiosity, were you working on one of the Ares rockets?

[torginus]

>Frankly if something you work on gets to space at all you count yourself fortunate.

That is unless you work on a ballistic missile

[lostlogin]

This bares thinking about. On a working holiday in the UK it was a revelation to find just how huge the defence industry really is.