<A person enlist in the military, choose Special Forces, and suffer a service-related death. It's a tragedy. That doesn't mean the Armed Forces are relieved from any obligation to provide as safe an environment as possible!!!

You are correct. And the Armed Forces do just that. And the keyword is "as safe as POSSIBLE" - given the mission requirements. The nature of the job is such that in order to succeed one must take risks. These risks can be minimized (and are), but you can not lower them below certain limit without making the success impossible.

Financial and technical constraints of the X-prize will preclude some if not most of the safety procedures available to NASA astronauts.

"Choosing" doesn't mean throwing away one's life!!

I recommend reading "Deep Descent" by Kevin McMurray. So many people got themselves killed diving Andrea Doria that the boat captains who take divers to that wreck demand liability release signatures not just from divers, but from their spouses as well. I recently met the very first woman who dived Andrea Doria; her husband died there. Did she grieve? Certainly. Does she respect his choice? Well, judge from her actions - she is in her late 50's, repeated incidents of decompression sickness left her with no sensations on one side of the body, and she has bone necrosis in one ankle from long exposures to excessive oxygen pressure. Doctors recommend fusing her ankle bone to leg bone.

She refuses because that would impede her swimming. Is it stupid? No, it's a trade-off. Life without diving for her is not worth living. So she gives up safety precautions which would make diving impossible. I estimate her chances of some day following her husband into eternal ocean between 60% and 100%. And she knows it. And who are you to tell her otherwise??