Eight out of eight end-to-end primary mission completions says enough good things about reliability for some people.

Not very efficiently, though. There's a reason why there came a point when the shuttle only boosted NASA missions to orbit. The military and commercial operators kept using conventional boosters.

I generally agree with the sentiment that we need options and that SpaceX is a good one... but I'm pretty sure that buying Soyuz seats is cheaper per astronaut than the space shuttle was. We can't really claim that the Russians are "extorting" us.

They've had two successful station dockings and two commercial launches. They're well on their way to the dozen launches you're after.

Yeah. Bipropellant main engines and monopropellant thrusters are a pretty common architecture. SpaceX is actually going with a lot of tried-and-true approaches...with a few unique twists.

Don't blame millennials. They're not the ones in Congress determining NASA funding levels.

I think Elantris makes an excellent introduction. It establishes Sanderson as someone who makes the world-building fundamental to his stories.

Brent Weeks is the closest comparison I know of.

A fictional warning by fictional aliens absolutely should be ignored.

Honestly, the worst "error" is the line about the board having more technology than the satellites we launched in 2010.

I could never get into Stephen Baxter.

Answer to headline question:

Ralph Baierlein's Newtonian Dynamics.

Boas' book is THE BEST. I still refer to it at work.

This article is mathematically correct, but it's important to note a distinction in the implications:

You want to limit the discussion to only the opinions of climate scientists? I'm not sure you understand the effect that will have on your argument. I also enjoyed your implication that "a bunch of scientists" is an inherently untrustworthy thing. Excellent trolling, sir.

Think the Airlander will have as much of a propensity for breaking apart in winds as those classic airships?

There are air whales, and then there are air whales.

Wow, crystal skin that's a Fabry-Perot interferometer? Cool.

They are also actively researching effective ways to deflect incoming asteroids; I daresay getting the groundwork ready before we need it counts toward the "protection" mission.