Embarrassed, perhaps, by the success of garage entrepreneurs and visionaries like Bert Rutan, NASA has proposed a new two stage approach to getting to, from, and around space. Instead of trying to design complex one-size-fits-all vehicles like the now rattletrap Space Shuttle, NASA is proposing to partner with a whole group of private sector designers and firms to build two new space vehicles.
A Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV) would move people from earth to orbit, using the space station as a transit point. A second vehicle, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, would stay in space and be used for orbital work (repairing satellites, weather and astronomy studies, etc.) and for trips to and from the moon.
If all this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it is--it is exactly what Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick imagined it would be like in 2001: A Space Odyssey--back in 1968. Apparently senior NASA officials finally read the book and/or watched the movie. And we're only ten years late, sort of. We don't have anywhere near the level of technology envisioned in the movie, probably because NASA has been asleep for nearly thirty years.
But let's not focus too much on history. NASA is making the right moves, and the private sector contracts for CTVs, CEVs, and related support and services will be worth billions. Another signal of the emerging Space Economy.