Scott Lowther wrote:

Behold... the prototype Lockheed CEV, nearly finished:

http://up-ship.com/ptm/cevprototype.jpg


Yeepers, you work really fast!
There's talk now that there may be some Shuttle components used on the
finished system (probably for an unmanned cargo carrier) and that they
may want the CEV to be larger than currently planned:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7345
Using the Shuttle's ET and SRBs on a unmanned cargo carrier would at
least vastly decrease the number of launches needed for a lunar landing
mission over what could be done with Delta IV Heavies.
One of the main things that worked against the Shuttle cargo versions
was the need to try and recover the SSMEs due to their cost, but two of
the Delta IV's RS 68s give around the same thrust, and they are designed
to be expendable.
Operating costs of such a vehicle could be kept low due to the amount
of man-hours that could be saved in not having to deal with the
orbiter's refurbishment and upkeep.

Pat