Factbox: What's next for NASA after shuttle program?

(Reuters) - Space shuttle Discovery launched on Thursday, one of the last remaining shuttle missions as NASA begins to phase out its 30-year-old shuttle program.

Here's a look at what's next for NASA and human space travel.

* Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled for its final flight in April to deliver the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector to the space station. Astronaut Scott Kelly, husband of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in January, is the commander.

* Despite budget uncertainties, NASA expects to have the money for a final cargo run to the space station this summer on shuttle Atlantis. The agency hopes to stock the station with a year's worth of supplies in case the commercial companies hired to take over cargo-delivery services encounter delays.

* NASA wants to help U.S. firms develop the capability to fly people to the International Space Station so it can buy flights commercially. Five firms are currently working under the agency's $50 million Commercial Crew Development program, with another $200 million in the offing for a follow-on program. Awards are expected to be announced next month.

* Congress wants NASA to start work on a heavy-lift rocket that can travel in deep space, well beyond the space station's orbit. But NASA -- like the rest of the U.S. government -- currently is funded under a continuing resolution budget for the year that began October 1 and is unable to start new programs until Congress appropriates funds.

* Russia is now the sole provider of crew transportation to the station -- at a cost of $51 million a seat -- until and unless U.S. firms are up for the job.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Beech)