The project is dubbed Orion, and is a throwback to the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo days with a capsule design rather than a glider. The Orion will replace the Shuttle and, hopefully, will be the primary platform that will carry humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.

Last I heard the NASA brains were fighting about whether or not the capsule would contain an airbag system to facilitate landings on solid ground, or if they would strip off that hardware in an effort to save weight and instead splash the capsule down in the ocean in more or less the same way we did in the 60's and 70's.

Why in the Universe would we spend all this money, time and effort into something that may only last another 17 years? Surely the ISS could last much longer than that.

The 'Beagle' project was done by without any government support worth mentioning. But if it had succeded the government would have been there taking all the credit.

I suggest that any country who thinks the UK has got this extension to the ISS sorted needs to be planning to do it themselves.

It would also be helpful if we could some more crew transport vehicles in the works so that we don't have to rely completely on the Russians rockets.

The Fool
newfrontiersblog.blogspot.com

[...] to Universe Today, a group of scientists are proposing two British modules for the International Space Station. The [...]