What happens to NASA after the 2010 shuttle retirement?

Question

how will we get into outer space after 2010. Is there some kind of new shuttle? What gives?

Answer 1

Short answer:

The Ares rockets being built under the Constellation program will start flying about 2012.  Initially, Ares 1 will carry crew vehicles.  In 2018, the heavy-lift Ares 5 will be ready.

Meanwhile, the ISS program will continue to collaborate with Russia.  The Russians provide Progress and Soyuz vehicles for resupply and Station crew changes.

The European Space Agency has successfully demonstrated their Automated Transfer Vehicle.  The ATV, lofted on an Ariane rocket, will carry cargo to ISS.

All of the manned space flight in recent years has been to Low Earth Orbit.  "Outer Space" will continue to be accessed as it always has - by unmanned probes and observatories.

Answer 2

After the shuttle stops we as of right now will have at least a four year gap of flying to space untill the Constellation Program starts flying to take us back to the moon and forward to Mars.

Project Constellation is a NASA program to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, the Earth Departure Stage and the Altair lunar lander. These spacecraft will be capable of performing a variety of missions, from Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

Most of the Constellation hardware is based on systems originally developed for the Space Shuttle, although Orion's two-part crew and service module system is heavily influenced by the earlier Apollo Spacecraft, and it uses engines derived from the Saturn V and Delta IV rockets. Proposed Constellation missions may employ both Earth Orbit Rendezvous and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous techniques.

Orion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the United States space agency NASA. Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts, and will be launched by the Ares I, a launch vehicle also currently under development. Both Orion and Ares I are elements of NASA's Project Constellation, which plans to send human explorers back to the Moon by 2020, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system. On August 31, 2006, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin (LM) the contract to design, develop, and build Orion.

Orion will launch from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center, the same launch complex that currently launches the Space Shuttle. NASA will use Orion spacecraft for its human spaceflight missions after the last Shuttle orbiter is retired in 2010. The first Orion flight is scheduled at the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015 with future flights to the International Space Station. If commercial orbital transportation services are unavailable, Orion will handle logistic flights to the Station. After that, Orion is to become a key component of human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Answer 3

2010 is the year the old shuttles phase out, and the new shuttle

is not ready in. One can image that Non-shuttle type rockets

will be used heavily from 2010 to 2015.

The new shuttle information can be found in the web site of NASA, it's contractors, and Wikipedia.