I can't help but wonder how long it would have taken to develop the Atlas back in the late 1950's-early 1960's if the FAA had been in charge. Those things blew up on a regular basis, yet they continued to launch them as part of the development process to sort out all the issues.
Even when the Atlas was 'man-rated' for Mercury-Atlas orbital flights, it's failure rate was close to 1/3rd...