Successor to the Shuttle?

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Seems pretty retro: a crew capsule sitting atop a booster, designed for automatic stability during re-entry and equipped with an escape rocket during departure. But it's supposed to be all new...

[update 2005/08/18]

Wired has a related article this morning, describing the progress of tSpace in their development of a new Crew Transfer Vehicle. They've used $6 million in NASA funding and have actually developed working hardware.

My favorite bit concerns new NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who according to the article said he "would buy rides for NASA astronauts on privately owned spaceships."