[mastermage]

> If you play a single round of Russian roulette with a revolver, it is likely you will not die, but it is also not safe to do that. The same idea applies here.

Fundamentally space travel is not save, it cannot be (atleast at our Technological level) Space is unimaginably hostile to life. We cannot reduce this danger to zero.

[wavemode]

This is (no offense) intellectually dishonest. Nobody wants the risk to be zero. What we want is that, if there is a specific KNOWN flaw in a life-critical system, that the flaw is addressed and the shuttle re-tested before humans are placed in it.

There's no good reason not to do this, except as a lazy cost-cutting measure (and, presumably, under time pressure to perform the eventual moon landing mission within the timeframe of Trump's presidency).