Nasa announce the Space Shuttles replacement. The SLS.

[Greenlantern101]

The Space Launch System (SLS) will be the most powerful rocket ever built - more powerful even than the Saturn V rockets that put men on the Moon and it will be able to carry 70 tonnes of stuff. The shuttle carried just 22.

The rocket is to take man to an asteroid and then to Mars.
Nasa says the first launch should occur towards the end of 2017.

Nice wee CGI vid on the Nasa website complete with air shredding sound effects.
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/sls1.html

 

[Vortex]

I always wanted to witness a shuttle launch, shame its no longer.

 

[gethinceri]

Sorry, i can't be impressed by that vid. It's a big space rocket in a cartoon.
They'd have found it easier to just say "imagine a massive Saturn V with two solid fuel boosters attached", then they could have saved the cartoon money. That would have ruined the teenage student's graphic design project though, wouldn't it?