Hm, normally I let Tolwyn answer this kind of questions, but he seems to be not around these days, so let me give you at least a rough scetch about the release-dates.
We are currently working on our prologue, and besided that on the interface, flight models and other stuff. Most important is, that we try hard to press as many WC-Feeling as possible into the freespace-engine.
If we wouldn't change things all over again, the release would be certainly sooner, on the other hand, everything overworked is simply to damned good, so we must insert it into the game
Also, if our voice-actors wouldn't be that lazy (I always have to wait 2 months for getting 10 lines corrected), things would go also faster
(*hint*: So if you want to help us, send us some voice-lines. If I like it, I have no problem in kicking a lazy actor out and take other actors instead.
About the Prologue, this isn't 100% sure, since it depends when I will receive missing stuff to complete the prologue-missions, but I think you can expect it within the first quarter of 2005. But again, I can not take a 100% gurantee on this.
About the main-release, there can be no date targeted on, since there are way to many factors which must be taken into account. By looking into the script, the main-release is bigger (and it's mission much more complex) than all other WC-Games before (without the videos of course), so you can imagine that it will need time.
Stay tuned, and trust me, when I'm saying that it is well worth waiting for