The term "Black Swan" originally came about due to the belief that all swans were white, as only white swans had been observed. However, in 1697, black swans were discovered in Australia by the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, which was an unexpected and groundbreaking event in the history of zoology. Black swan events are rare and unexpected events that have a severe impact. Examples of black swan events are the 2000 dot-com bubble, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Most engineering structures (rockets, satellites, airframes, micro-electronics, etc.) shall be designed for failure probability at least not exceeding one in a million per lifetime. Due to the extremely low required failure risk and catastrophic consequences, the unexpected failures of crucial aerospace structures are precisely what are referred to as black swan events. Understanding the statistics of the rare-event failures could fundamentally fuel the development of super-reliable lightweight structures, which could further improve the reusability of launch vehicles, satellites, and airplanes, ultimately decreasing the cost of entering space and air.