Sometimes I see images that speak strongly to how reliability engineering affects us everyday. Think of how many items you own or use systems that you wouldn’t touch/interact with if you couldn’t be absolutely sure they would work as expected. I wouldn’t use my microwave if I thought there was a 1/1000 chance it would catch fire. The amount of faith I have in traffic lights working correctly is astounding. If they malfunction it could be fatal.
This image gives me chills when I think about what it took to just let go of even that last bit of security, the space ship, and just float away. Knowing that if any part of your suit thruster system failed you would just float away into space until you ran out of oxygen.
This may be the single greatest photo ever of a person putting their faith in the reliability of a design.
-Adam
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