You think the press will be any kinder if (when) it blows up on a clear day? We don't have the budget for an extensive flight test program, so every test has to go perfectly or it will risk the schedule to man-rate the system. Any failures and they'll start to talk about how there aren't many test flights scheduled and how there may not even be an unmanned test flight of the full-up integrated system. It all has to work perfectly the first time.
