2 . The dargon spacecraft

Successors

The Dragon spacecraft, one of the Space Shuttle's several successors, is seen here on its way to deliver cargo to the ISS

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program began in 2006 with the purpose of creating commercially operated unmanned cargo vehicles to service the ISS.^[24] The first of these vehicles, SpaceX's Dragon, became operational in 2012, and the second, Orbital Sciences' Cygnus, is expected to do so in 2013.^[25] The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program was initiated in 2010 with the purpose of creating commercially operated manned spacecraft capable of delivering at least four crew members to the ISS, staying docked for 180 days and then returning them back to Earth.^[26] These spacecraft are expected to become operational around 2017.^[27]
Although the Constellation program was canceled it has been replaced with a very similar beyond low-Earth orbit program. The Orion spacecraft has been left virtually unchanged from its previous design. The planned Ares V rocket has been replaced with the smaller Space Launch System (SLS), which is planned to launch both Orion and other necessary hardware.^[28] The Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), an unmanned test flight of Orion's crew module, is planned to be launched in 2014 on a Delta IV Heavy rocket.^[29] Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) is the unmanned initial launch of SLS, which is planned for 2017.^[29] Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) is the first manned flight of Orion and SLS and is scheduled for 2019.^[29] EM-2 is 10-14 day mission planned to place a crew of four into Lunar orbit. As of March 2012, the destination for EM-3 and immediate destination focus for this new program is still in-flux.^[30]