“The Space Shuttle was faster than a SR-71,”
The space shuttle did not have engines. ;-)
well, not the kind that breath air, at any rate.
The Space Shuttle did have engines. It had to turn backwards and fire them to reduce speed and fall out of orbit. These engines were nothing compared to the two solid rocket boosters with 1 million pounds of propellant or the Main Booster with over a half million gallons of liquid propellant.