I believe it was the same "back then".
During the Bell X-1 flight program there were numerous rocket engine failures. In fact, on the very first X-1 powered flight (flown by Chalmers Goodlin), the engine caught on fire. Throughout the X-1 program, the rocket engine (XLR-11) caught fire on many occasions. At least one exploded in flight. On several other flights, the pilot had to jettison the propellant.
During the X-15 program, Scott Crossfield had an XLR-11 exploded on him in flight. The next summer, Scott was in the cockpit for a static ground test of the more powerful XLR-99 rocket -- which also exploded. When the XLR-99 was finally ready for its first powered flight (on a manned X-15), Scott was again the pilot. The guy had no fear.
Those X pilots were of a different breed. Same with these Scaled Composite pilots today. They got the Right Stuff, as Yeager might say.