Is the “old” NASA returning?

So, NASA is again deferring the shuttle replacement. This 1999 article says that 2008 was the target to start using the shuttle replacement. Now, under the new plan, NASA has apparently realized that they have no hope of getting Shuttle II anytime soon. Instead, they want to spend a (relatively modest, for NASA) $2.4 billion to build a spaceplane for use with the ISS (final design in 2004, initial flights in 2008), followed by Shuttle II in 2015 or so. That would require life extension efforts for the current shuttle fleet, especially because the plan also calls for adding a 5th yearly flight to the existing schedule.
The interesting thing about this plan is not that it calls for new hardware; NASA does that all the time. The big deal IMHO is that NASA actually went to the President and got him to ask Congress to revise NASA’s current fiscal-year budget to divert money to these new programs. That’s an act of sanity that never would have happened on Dan Goldin‘s watch. Perhaps things are looking up. Stay tuned for further details.