Today's SpaceX Abort got me thinking about the importance of failure on success.
Jesus told us that adults should become like children (in some respects rather than others.)
What do we lose or gain as we become adults? We do learn fear of failure which is both a good and bad thing. It's a good thing because it holds us back from being too rash. But it's a bad thing if it leads to too great a cost.
This was a successful abort because it saved the vehicle and lead to the discovery of a problem that needed correction (a valve on engine five needs replacing before they launch next Tuesday.)
What if SpaceX decided a bad valve must never happen again so they implement extremely costly quality controls? They already have excellent quality controls and systems in place to catch problems before they explode [literally] into bigger problems.
A danger always exist that caution becomes so great it causes stagnation. It's a balance. Take away too much risk (not all risk mitigation actually is) and you take away reward.
Sometimes it's best not to know what you can't do.
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