Most of you have probably already seen this. But here it is for those who haven't. I'm happy to see this vehicle still hanging in there, but have to seriously wonder if the CRV will ever be built. Well, here's hoping.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/x38_test_010710.html

X-38 'Lifeboat' Undergoes Sixth Flight Test

By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 02:39 pm ET
10 July 2001

A NASA prototype for an astronaut "lifeboat" flew in its sixth free-flight Tuesday over California's Mojave Desert.

At about 1:30 p.m. Eastern, the wedge-shaped craft was dropped from a B-52 for a 13-minute flight after taking off from the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Additional details were to be released later Tuesday.

The X-38 prototypes are aimed at proving technologies needed to build a space-worthy Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) that could be docked to the International Space Station for the safe emergency return of a six-person crew.

As the unpiloted prototype descended to land at Edwards, engineers tested aspects of the software used to control the craft, its landing parachute and a 5,500-square-foot fabric parafoil that unfurls for final descent.

The idea for the X-38 is to replace the three-person Russian Soyuz module, currently the only way to return to Earth from the International Space Station when there is no shuttle docked.

NASA had planned on a $1 billion craft that would be attached to the station. That project was axed in February when it was revealed the International Space Station would overrun projections by $4 billion. The future of the project is uncertain but prototype testing continues.

The 29-foot-long, triangular-shaped pod, which uses its body like a wing, is needed if the station is to host crews of more than three and conduct significant science experiments.

As of April 2001, NASA had spent $66 million on the X-38 so far.

Plans are still on track to carry the craft into orbit inside shuttle Columbia next year and release it for a fiery ride back to Earth.