It looks like NASA plans on going ahead with plans to develop a new deep space ship to replace the soon to be retired Space Shuttles. These plans call for repurposing the canceled Orion space capsule technology at the hands of private contractors.
Orion was one of the centrepieces of former President George W Bush's Constellation programme, which sought to return Americans to the Moon using two new rockets and a high-spec capsule.
But the initiative was cancelled by his successor because of its burgeoning cost – $9bn at the time Mr Obama ordered it be shut down. Investment in Orion alone to date is put at slightly more than $5bn.
The hopes of NASA are to have this new space vehicle up and running, or rather flying within the next decade.
[Source: BBC News]
