NASA making strides to decommission the Space Shuttle Program

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/10/nasa.in.transition.ap/index.html

Looks like NASA is making further steps to finally decommission the aging space shuttle program in exchange for the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The CEV will be more modular and be launchable from a low earth orbit (NASA description here). This is probably the biggest change that NASA has undergone in the last 30+ years, let's just hope it works. Looks like Lockheed Martin and NG are the only two competietors left (albeit with a bevy of sub-contractors at their leash) after the last contract proposal downselect. At $104 Billion dollars the CEV contract is a pretty big prize.