Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ihlpl!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Heavy Lift Capacity Boosters
Summary: getting the SSMEs back out of orbit?
Message-ID: <6936@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 88 16:18:22 GMT
References: <677@eplrx7.UUCP> <2240@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1402@viper.Lynx.MN.Org> <2248@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 13

In article <2248@ssc-vax.UUCP>, eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) writes:
> The SSMEs are packaged in a recoverable pod which comes down on
> parachutes.

Good idea.  But don't the SSMEs go into orbit?
Does their pod need both retro-rockets and an ablative heat shield
to re-enter safely before deploying the chutes?
Also, aren't the complex liquid engines more easily damaged
by the splashdown and salt water corrosion while they're
waiting to be fished out of the water?

BTW, do the Russians use ablative shields on their Mir re-entries,
or has something better been developed?