You&#x27;re right; when I say &quot;not that risky&quot; I&#x27;m comparing reality vs. perception of space flight more than reality of space flight vs. reality of dangerous civilian jobs.<p>On the other hand, for an accurate comparison to BLS numbers I think we would need the total number of astronauts, not the number of spaceflight participants.  As for safety improvements, 3 of the 4 fatal spaceflight accidents (and 11 of 18 deaths) occurred in relatively new vehicles.  Only one of the accidents occurred in a tried-and-true vehicle, and the fatality count is inflated by the number of people NASA put on each shuttle.