The Shuttle flew and the astronaut transfer was made. We don't have to spend mega bucks to assure against disaster. The best assurance is the resourcefulness of the human brain. No-risk assurance by expensive redundant systems can only go so far. There's no excuse for not heeding the law of diminishing returns.
Some measures make sense because they are relatively inexpensive.
Somewhere along the way we absolutely must tell those who would stay at home, regardless, that it's none of their business, that it is a question for those of us who would go to answer. And as always throughout human history, those who would pioneer are never reluctant to accept a certain level of real risk. Space, as a public project, inevitably means that those who have no intention at all of going are calling all the shots. The trouble is, making the opening of space a government project, makes it a public project, one in which those who have no intention at all of going are calling all the shots. Pioneers have never been shy of risk.