> Many failures were design flaws that would have created identical failures in any duplicate spacecraft of the same design.
I'm not so sure about that. Design flaws in aircraft are often not discovered until years pass, and it only affects one airplane (though the rest then get corrected). For a design flaw to cause a failure also requires the right conditions, which may be unlikely.
Spacecraft are a little different because so many components can't be tested properly on the ground. "The pump stops pumping properly after 1 week with no gravity" is very hard to predict or test for.
I'm not so sure about that. Design flaws in aircraft are often not discovered until years pass, and it only affects one airplane (though the rest then get corrected). For a design flaw to cause a failure also requires the right conditions, which may be unlikely.