We've lost 2 out of 5 shuttles due to problems stemming from the expendable launch boosters, not the reusable shuttles. True the Columbia did fail on re-entry, but it is highly likely it would have survived had large pieces of insulation been falling off the expendable fuel tank. The shuttle still works the way it was designed. It just wasn't deigned to have it's booster engines explode on it, or have large objects collide with the wings. So the failure rate of the shuttle itself is fairly good, it just couldn't survive a couple extreme situations that either were impossible to avoid or not enough precautions to avoid had been implemented.
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We've lost 2 out of 5 shuttles due to problems stemming from the expendable launch boosters, not the reusable shuttles. True the Columbia did fail on re-entry, but it is highly likely it would have survived had large pieces of insulation been falling off the expendable fuel tank. The shuttle still works the way it was designed. It just wasn't deigned to have it's booster engines explode on it, or have large objects collide with the wings. So the failure rate of the shuttle itself is fairly good, it just couldn't survive a couple extreme situations that either were impossible to avoid or not enough precautions to avoid had been implemented.
It could also easily be made better too, just add LOTS of Jedi fighting...