"Mike Chan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Douglas Holmes wrote:
"Jim Kingdon" wrote in message
news
There's one expected this afternoon.

I assume this is the one:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005...ontractor.html

In a nutshell, they picked two contractors to compete for a
down-selection in 2006 (which is sooner than had been previously
planned). Moving up the down-selection has been widely reported for
some months now.

Is that what was expected or is there more?

The most interesting line for me was:

NASA's Vision for Space Exploration calls for the CEV to carry up to six
astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit soon after the Space Shuttle is retired
in
2010, and then on to the moon as early as 2015.

When did the CEV become a SIX man vehicle?

Helps explain the size increase from 20 to 30 tons.

Seems like it had gone to crew size of 4 back when it would be good if
an EELV smaller than D-IVH can serve as the launcher. Now it seems it
has gone to 6 so that even a D-IVH can't serve as the launcher.

Not exactly.
About a third of the weight is fuel.
With only enough fuel for an ISS missions it would drop down to
just over 20 tons. Which both can carry.
With dual or quad rl-10s, depending on weight, both can also launch
the larger version.