Tired of your current license plate? Sad to look at the tiny (de-funded) space shuttle launching across the open expanse of Texas sky behind your individually issued alphanumerical combination?

Luckily, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles has released its latest license plate design to circulate as the aeronautics-themed Lone Star Texas plates go the way of NASA.

In case you want to get a jump on the rest of the state, 11 of 254 counties have begun issuing the new plates. Perhaps a drive to Cameron, Matagorda or Ector counties is in order?

Produced by the happy inmates at the Wynne Correctional Unit in Huntsville, the new Texas Classic plates are a throwback to the simple Texas plates of the 1960s, with a plain, black-and-white color palette that lacks the vibrancy of the last design.

The 1-by-2.5-inch numbers and letters are now separated by a miniature state of Texas, to make the code easier to remember for car owners, law enforcement agents and civilian witnesses.

According to the DMV's license plate FAQ page, "Some citizen witnesses who observed a crime called us to say they just couldn’t catch the seven-character plate number because of the busy design, and we heard the same thing from law enforcement officers, who are professionally trained to read plate numbers. Other Texans complained the current plate colors clashed with their vehicle color. The Texas Classic is the solution to these concerns."

Phew! Because failing to color-coordinate your license plate with your car will haunt you far longer than failing to identify a hit-and-run driver.

The DMV also boasts the existence of two "high-visbility security threads" that run along each side of the plate, which make it easier for law enforcement officers to identify counterfeit plates from farther away. Surprisingly, these are the first license plates in the country to include such a design feature.

Some might appreciate the simplicity and nostalgia of the new plates. For those who prefer to express themselves plate-wise, nonprofit, university and military plates still are available through the DMV. May we suggest the Freebirds World Burrito license plate?