宇航分析家克拉克在他准备的一份报告中指出,在1957年至1985年期间,苏联有80次发射故障,而美国却有97次发射故障。考虑到苏联空间发射率极高,每年为100次,苏联的发射故障率与美国的相比似乎意外的低。克拉克说,然而,美国空间发射较高的故障率是在宇宙探索年代(在这些年代,美国的发射率比苏联的高40％),例如在1960年到1962年,美国的发射故障为32次。 Aerospace analyst Clarke pointed out in a report prepared by him that during the period from 1957 to 1985, the Soviet Union had 80 launch faults, while the United States had 97 launch faults. Considering the extremely high space launch rate in the Soviet Union, which is 100 times a year, the Soviet launch failure rate seems surprisingly low in comparison with the United States. However, Clarke said that the higher failure rate of space launch in the United States was at the age of exploration of the universe (during these years, the United States had a 40% higher rate of launch than the Soviet Union). For example, in the 1960s to 1962, the United States launched a failure of 32 times .