The U.S. space program has a history made up 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 all of its components.

Each of the six joints in the Challenger space shuttle’s booster rocket had a 0.977 reliability. The six joints worked independently.

a. What does it mean to say that the six joints work independently?

b. What was the reliability (probability) for all six of the joints working together?