Space Shuttle Successors and Legacy
Until another U.S. manned spacecraft is ready, crews will travel to and from the International Space Station (ISS) exclusively aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
A planned successor to STS was the "Shuttle II" during the 1980s and 1990s, and later the Constellation program during the 2004–2010 period. CSTS was a proposal to continue to operate STS commercially, after NASA. In September 2011, NASA announced the selection of the design for the new Space Launch System that is planned to launch the Orion spacecraft and other hardware to missions beyond low earth-orbit.
The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program began in 2006 with the purpose of creating commercially operated unmanned cargo vehicles to service the ISS. These vehicles, the SpaceX Dragon and the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus, are expected to become operational in 2012. The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program was initiated in 2010 with the purpose of creating commercially operated manned spacecraft capable of delivering at least four crew members to the ISS, to stay docked for 180 days and then return them back to Earth. These spacecraft are expected to become operational in the mid-2010s.
Read more about this topic: Space Shuttle
Famous quotes containing the words space, shuttle and/or legacy:
“... the space left to freedom is very small. ... ends are inherent in human nature and the same for all.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“And the shuttle never falters, but to draw an encouraging conclusion
From this would be considerable, too odd. Why not just
Breathe in with the courage of each day, recognizing yourself as one
Who must with difficulty get down from high places?”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)