The ULA boosters are Lockheed's Atlas V (with the Russian RD-180 engine), and the Boeing Delta IV (which, I believe uses the Rocketdyne RS-68).

However, Boeing has pulled the Delta IV from the market, so there will be a limited number of these launched in the future.

I think that Boeing's decision was one of the reasons that prompted the launch-services merger. The RS-68 was expensive to develop, (and expensive to fly; part of that was the choice to use hydrogen+LOX, instead of kerosene+LOX like the RD-180) - and they weren't making enough profit on the launches, and were ready to bail from the market entirely; while Lockheed's decision to use the RD-180 saved them money - it made them the only player in the medium/heavy launch market.

One thing about the Delta IV; is that it had capabilities that Atlas does not have, like in-air restarts, better reliability, more accurate payload delivery. Don't get me wrong, I think that both vehicles have their merits. The market will suffer with the loss of the Delta IV; and hopefully SpaceX can help, but SpaceX's goal is going to be cheaper launches, and it remains to be seen whether Falcon can deliver any of those features. (the other question about Falcon, is whether they can deliver the Heavy Lift capability which is a HUGE gap right now. Both Atlas and Delta have flown in "heavy" configurations - both of which are essentially "hacks" - but no worse than Ares was going to be).

They're not selling drugs.

They're selling FREEDOM!!!

Darwin doesn't take care of it. Nature does.
And that approach basically says we should throw up our hands at this whole civilization thing, and let nature take it's course in every human endeavor.

The whole point of insurance is to share risk. So yes, if insurers are allowed to discriminate, then there is really no point to insurance, other than as being a middleman for the end-user's savings plan.

If one could offshore a wind-farm, it seems trivial by comparison to offshore the receiving antenna.

A method for working this out, in the 1970's, included a moon-base, and a mass-driver to launch raw materials into earth orbit for processing and construction. This was deemed to be profitable (by the precursors of what later become the Planetary Society, used to be the L5 Society) - based on projected energy costs (in 1973, during the energy crisis), and also based on a cheap, reusable spacelaunch system which would reduce launch costs to something like $10/kg. The Space Shuttle was supposed to BE that launch system, and we all know how that turned out. (nowhere near $10/kg).

So if you use today's numbers, and rule-out a moon-mining colony; yeah, it's kind of a ridiculous proposition.

However, a lot could happen to our energy costs in the not-too-distant future. Though I don't think that that will lead to orbital solar power stations.

I think that the really amazing bit was that they were able to land over the ocean, in stormy seas. I wonder what the wind-speed was at that time?

several fish were severely burned. probably.

commerce-clause has been used to enforce a national 55 mph speed limit (the dark times), and national 21 yr drinking age.

Yes; they absolutely ARE in lockstep on this.

This is what unions are for.

Even if the "Great Filter" exists; even if it were 99.999% effective at wiping out civilizations, that would still mean there have been billions of years, for billions of civilizations to arise, and of those billions, perhaps tens of thousands survived to colonize space.

This is why I believe in the Zoo Hypothesis.

Un-repayable to whom?

Anyone from whom you'd borrow the money would be dead in 100 years, and a colonial attempt would barely have left the solar system by then.

Yes, we do tend to think "small" when we're driven by next-quarter's numbers, do we?

(Windows 8 version): No save buttons, per se, see, because we've uncluttered the interface. Youve got to slide your mouse over to the left side of the screen there, see? And then, the "charms bar" will slide out of the edge. If you're in "save" mode, and if your user has admin privileges, you'll see a button that looks like a circle with a little box in it. That's the save button.

Everyone: "WTF?"

How about a FED conspiracy theory, and plea for return to the gold standard?

Not only is it a good idea, but it may be a necessary idea (to our survival). And the idea that ppl don't want to finance it? I know, let's spend more money on weapons to invade other nations on false pretenses. That's a way better use of funds.