[boris]

"Why would they have to land in the ocean? If the engines were not detached till after the payload module acheives orbit, one could choose just about anywhere in the world to land them by parachute just by waiting for a suitable orbit to fire some retro rockets. Probably the ideal place to recover the engines would be in a desert like Death Valley, Callifornia where Edwards Airforce base is located. Also, considering there would be no live passengers aboard, it would not be necessary to worry as much about limiting the g forces it is subjected to during a re-entry and parachute landing."

Rocket engines are pretty delicate and if you bumped one hard you'd probably need to tear it to bitsy pieces and re-assemble. Also, we will paint a big "X" in Death Valley and let you go stand on it to watch as the package comes in. Deal?

--Boris

[chimera]

Rocket engines are pretty delicate and if you bumped one hard you'd probably need to tear it to bitsy pieces and re-assemble.

I'm with you on this one. My guess is that after a couple of good hard bumps the main engines would be in for a tough time. The SRBs are recoverable because they're very simple. Essentially a long, hollow tube stuffed with solid propellant. The liquid H2-burning main engines are like jeweled watches by comparison. They've got high speed cryo-turbo pumps, thrust throttle controls, gimbaling mounts, and a host of other precision gear that doesn't lend itself well to high-stress impacts. They do okay now because their ride back to Earth is relatively gentle. I'm not sure slamming them around in a high g-force landing will be all that good for them.