They really are quite amazing. It's one thing to design equipment to specification, but when you exceed the expected life by such great amounts, that really shows the genius of those that worked on it. I would really like to see them do an after study on them, to figure out why they lasted so long.
In space, it's all about durability and survivability in reference to cost. I think it's something like 10k/1kg or something along those lines. It's forecasted that prices will fall gradually though, given another 10-20 years but it will never be run-of-the-mill. Which is sad because I was really looking forward to going up myself
