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Does anyone know what NASA's plans are 5-10 years down the road in terms of manned spaceflight? I know the shuttle program is nearing its end, but I haven't heard about anything replacing it.

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NASA Tuesday authorized two eight-month contracts, one to Lockheed Martin and the other to the team of Northrop Grumman and Boeing, to support a July 2006 review of the engineering systems for the agency's new Crew Exploration Vehicle. Each contract is worth approximately $28 million.

During this contract period, in addition to performing sustained engineering in support of the CEV review, the contractors will continue to develop designs for NASA's next-generation vehicle for human spaceflight and demonstrate ability to manage cost, schedule and risk.

Results of NASA's Exploration Systems Architectural Study, which defines parameters for the new vehicle to replace the space shuttle, will be incorporated into a "call for improvements" to be released later this year, inviting proposals from the selected contractors. These proposals will be evaluated for the final selection of a single CEV contractor.

Originally, the selection of a single industry team was planned for 2008, but to reduce or eliminate the time between the shuttle's retirement in 2010 and the first CEV flight, the selection is now planned for early 2006.

The CEV is expected to carry up to six astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit soon after the shuttle's retirement, and then on to the moon as early as 2015. The CEV is a key element of the United States' Vision for Space Exploration, which returns human explorers to the moon, Mars and beyond.