The U.S. space program has a history of many successes and some failures. Space flight reliability is of the utmost importance in the launching of space shuttles. The reliability of the complete mission is based on the reliability of all its components. Each of the six joints in the space shuttle Challenger’s booster rocket had a 0.977 reliability. The six joints worked independently.
a. What does it mean to say that the six joints worked independently?
b. What was the reliability (probability) of all six of the joints working together?