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Originally Posted by Adam Y.
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Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
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Originally Posted by Cory
Does anyone else find it slightly scary that COMPANIES will be building rockets to put normal people in space?
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Successful companies are in the business of making money. Injuring (or killing) their customers is something they tend to avoid.
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Too bad the first commercial jet planes fell out of the sky due to a design error. 
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The lesson to be learned from the DeHavilland Comet is not "Don't trust companies." The Comet was the first large aircraft to make regular trips to high altitude, and the problem of pressurization stress cycles was not known to
anyone. A government-designed airliner wouldn't have been any less likely to suffer from the flaw.
The true lesson is more along the lines of "Walk before you run." Test the designs to find out where they break. Identify the problems. Correct the design to eliminate them. Note that every airliner since the Comet has rounded corners on the windows (and doors).
SpaceShipOne and White Knight have round windows for exactly this reason.