Have you not heard of the Constellation program? They are retiring the shuttles because, as awesome as they are, they AREN"T the best way to get to space and back. Check out this link...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html
Look into the Orion spacecraft (No, that's not a joke, and it's not the one from "Deep Impact" either, although they DI think about really building that back in the day), and the Ares launcher. Some serious horsepower, right there.
Make no mistake about it, man has two choices...Get off this planet one way or the other, through exploration or extinction.