Re: Remote pilots?
SpaceX having more of the same type of engine on their rockets does two things. They get an economy of scale building one basic engine core and a couple of nozzle variations and the engines are not so large that they have to be made with bespoke machine tools. If their big@ss lathe breaks, they could fine another company with one and contract out if they need to. The F1 engine used on the Saturn rockets required the building of one-off machine tools first. During the space race, the Soviet Union used multiple small rocket engines as they weren't having any luck getting really big ones to work properly.