Originally Posted by
slawecki
i wonder if part of this event was outside the box.
Moreover, possibly involving multiple systems, or one system's effect on another, and/or a downrange phenomenon? A downrange cascade effect? Something that doesn't present before hours of operation. Such may not be picked up in the testing of discrete systems in distant suppliers' labs, even when the discrete problem that burned one down is believed solved. And compound risk calculation might never get to it, or not before the whole system has run many cycles -- e.g., the beta.
A friend was involved in the space shuttle's development, and says it was mainly for such reasons - compound risk - that the Air Force declined to take it under its wing when that prospect was in play. They didn't want the responsibility for a modern-day Hindenburg or Titanic or Vasa.