[LS]

I know you never heard of it. That's the point. With any POWERED vehicle, you must save some fuel. You are still operating in a shuttle mentality that we were trying to escape. Notice a 747 doesn't want to get rid of all fuel before it lands. A lot, yes. But POWERED re-entry is much more desirable than gliding.

[canuck_conservative]

"But POWERED re-entry is much more desirable than gliding."

Not necessarily. Powered re-entry means you have to carry along a bunch of liquid hydrogen (or whatever fuel) all through the orbital phase and - riskiest of all - the shaking, white-hot heat of upper re-entry. That's a long time for accidents to happen and dangerous as h*ll!

Glide re-entry does have its advantages.