These Air Force operations are clearly effective because the US space program successfully puts spacecraft into orbit. However, improvements to the US Space Launch Infrastructure are required to meet the current and future demands of government and commercial customers. The challenge for the US is to increase the number of launches or throughput. The significant factors that inhibit the US from being able to increase the volume of its launches fall into several different categories. The first, and recently very frequent, constraint on throughput is related to launch vehicles themselves.
Every time there is a launch failure, there is, understandably, an investigation.
Until the cause of the failure is known, no launch vehicle using the suspected failed system or part is typically used. That can mean months of delays and lost commercial revenues until the all clear is given. While this is not directly tied to the launch infrastructure, it is an important constraint on increasing throughput. Turn-around time One way to increase the volume is to increase the number of launch pads. Another is to increase the number of launches that can be made from a single launch pad.