Consider this, though.
While the United States does indeed lead the world for Astronaut Deaths, the number of Ground Crew Deaths in Russia is absolutely horrifying. It is so bad that they've even lost ENTIRE upper-level echelons of command staff to accidents at the launch pad.
(No, really. They don't even know for sure how many people died in this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe )
Astronauts and Cosmonauts all know what they do is inherently dangerous.
Those ground crews, though... I bet many of them never imagined the horrifying and grizzly ends that they were about to have.
While the United States does indeed lead the world for Astronaut Deaths, the number of Ground Crew Deaths in Russia is absolutely horrifying. It is so bad that they've even lost ENTIRE upper-level echelons of command staff to accidents at the launch pad.
(No, really. They don't even know for sure how many people died in this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe )
Astronauts and Cosmonauts all know what they do is inherently dangerous.
Those ground crews, though... I bet many of them never imagined the horrifying and grizzly ends that they were about to have.