## 1 Introduction  
Launch vehicles are any rocket propelled systems used to deliver a payload to a desired location in space. They are used to transport spacecraft such as communications satellites, deep space robotic missions, and crewed space capsules for both private and government organizations. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and United States Space Force (USSF) are the major governmental users of launch vehicles in the United States (US). Many private telecommunications companies use launch vehicles to deliver satellites into orbit. Most private companies and governmental organizations do not own or operate the launch vehicles that they use. They instead outsource the development and operation of launch vehicles to private companies to deliver their spacecraft to space[1, 2]. Spacecraft missions include communication, television services, science discovery, national security, and transporting humans. Satellite costs can range from several million dollars to several billion dollars[3]. Given the importance and costs of these satellites, the loss of satellites can have significant economic, scientific, societal, and national security impacts[4, 5].  
Spacecraft are most often lost or destroyed because of launch vehicle failures, thus indicating the need for the US Government and private satellite owners to minimize the risk of launch vehicle failure. The risk of launch failure is also a major concern for launch vehicle service providers, because a launch failure could detrimentally affect profits. Launchfailures can also significantly affect the launch vehicle's economic viability [4]. A study by [PERSON], in 2001, examined 50 space flight failures and found that inadequate systems engineering contributed to all of them [6]. [PERSON]'s study highlights the need to identify the factors affecting systems engineering in launch vehicle organizations.  
Systems engineering is widely defined as a method interdisciplinary approach to design, build, operate, and manage complex systems [7; 8; 9; 10; 11]. In the context of launch vehicles, systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach to design, manufacture, integrate, test, manage, and launch vehicles. Recognizing the criticality of systems engineering in the launch vehicle industry, in 2012, NASA added a systems engineering evaluation element to its launch vehicle certification policy. NASA's launch vehicle certification policy is a plan to thoroughly evaluate the risk associated with a given commercial launch vehicle before trusting the launch vehicle to deliver a NASA spacecraft into orbit [12]. The US Space Force, another major user of commercial launch vehicles, follows a similar policy of evaluating the systems engineering of a launch vehicle provider as part of the launch vehicle certification [13].  
Despite the substantial recognition that systems engineering is critical to the success of a launch vehicle, little research has examined the factors affecting systems engineering in launch vehicle organizations. Many launch vehicle failure studies have focused on the direct and proximate causes of failure, whereas little attention has been paid to systems engineering, including the underlying factors affecting systems engineering, in launch vehicle organizations. This study focused on filling that knowledge gap by identifying the underlying factors affecting systems engineering in US launch vehicle organizations. The next section of this paper presents a review of the literature on systems engineering and launch vehicle failures. The subsequent section presents a review of the methods. Analysis of the data collected from a survey is presented in the fourth section of this paper. The conclusions drawn from the data analysis are shown in the final section.