bzarcher | From the: OOooo, that's nifty! Department

The Jules Verne is on it's way to French Guiana.

Admittedly, it's a big unmanned cargo hauler, but it's still a pretty sexy piece of space hardware.

Maybe this will finally kick NASA/Congress into actually replacing the space shuttle. And then following through with the decision.

I wish, but doubtful. They'll hang on the CEV development hell until the shuttles all fall apart.