I thought I would explain my reasoning for the scrub cost and four month requirement for launches a bit better here.
One thing you must understand is that it is a nightmare of logistics to set up a launch for a rocket. In the real world launch vehicles are, usually, only built once a launch is scheduled. Unlike the real thing DSA! allows you to keep inventory on hand.
Then there is the fuel for the lifting body. In the west we use supercooled fuels like LOX and others. The problem with the stuff is that it boils off, even in the best of containers. So the fuel for the rocket in the west is not even moved on site until the day of launch due to boil off.
In the Soviet Union and the east they use a rocket fuel so corrosive it will actually eat away at the rocket itself. The Russian technicians who handled the stuff nicknamed it 'The Witches Brew'. It is a binary fuel based off of the T-Stoff and C-Stoff the Germans used to power their rocket plane, the Me-163 Komet. So their fuel, even though for different reasons, is not moved on site until the day of launch.
All of these things create a logistical nightmare to bring together, and is simplified in DSA by the four month lead time for scheduling a launch. This is also why scrubbing a launch costs so many PPs. They have to scramble to cancel HW purchases, get rid of thousands of gallons of highly toxic chemicals, and then redo the planning all over again.
Mission failures were expected, and as such even in failure lessons were learned. That's why in DSA even if the mission was a failure, any HW that did perform as expected gains in Safety. So, just a plain old mission failure, or partial success, is much easier on the player.
I hope this wee post will help to understand my rationale for the reasons for certain design features.
Cheers, Thor