Firstly, thanks for the great feedback. This is a game I've written for people to obsess over, and it's always wonderful to hear when people do.
I'd generally recommend emailing me edits rather than posting them here, simply because they are "time sensitive" and I'll usually incorporate them in a future minor or major update.
As for your suggestion to move the Mission and Launch Pad chapters to the core rules -- if I did I'd need to add roughly half of all This Space Intentionally to the core rules (Spacecraft designer, operations, infrastructure etc).
Instead I'm already planning on adding an equivalent "Landing" chapter, for travelling around sites; with more game play examples. I've shied away from providing too many examples to date, simply because the rules have been (somewhat) in flux -- specifically, I'm still not happy with the damage over time rules and I've only just solved load to my satisfaction (which will be included in the next update -- the rules change is relatively minor).
Finally, I'm planning a lot more support for solitaire for major update 2. I've not a fan of playing this game solitaire, but since the majority of players play that way, it makes sense to steer into what people are doing. A lot of solitaire will be rules for "just-in-time" creation. Instead of creating crew ahead of time you'll start the game and eg create crew capable of achieving FINAO when you need to perform an operation.