re: To date, there has not been a single astronaut or cosmonaut killed by an exploding rocket
Now I loved the Saturn 5, and it did have a perfect record for astronaut safety, but as I recollect it only had 10 manned flights. I wonder how it would have fared over 100 flights. To be fair I guess 25 flights would be more comparable to shuttle flights. Well you might also take into account that each Saturn 5 was brand new, unlike the shuttles, which are today approaching 20 years old. The Saturn had an escape system though, and if it did have a catastrophic failure the crew would have a chance of escaping with their lives, unlike the shuttle crews. It’s kind of hard to compare relative safety records.