What statistical foundation do successful uncrewed cargo missions build toward certification?
Answer
Reliability models required by the FAA and NASA
Each successful cargo mission flown by New Glenn contributes critically to building the necessary statistical foundation for future human-rating certification. These uncrewed flights validate engine performance and structural integrity under full operational loads. More importantly, they feed into the statistical reliability models that government regulatory agencies, specifically the FAA and NASA, use to assess risk. Accumulating this flight heritage provides the necessary quantitative evidence that the vehicle operates reliably enough to justify the enormous added liability of carrying human passengers.
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