"Totorkon" wrote in news:1165374969.594129.193970@
73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com:

The shuttle's SRBs hit the ocean at about 85 mph. Would it be
practical to have a liquid booster with a 'crushable' upper tank to
absorb the force of that kind of impact to protect its engine? Some
kind of air bags could cushion and serve as floats when the upside down
booster falls on its side.

Falling objects tend to stabilize heavy-end first, and for liquid stages
that means that the engines will hit the water first. You'd need something
additional to make the falling stage stabilize tank-first.


--
JRF

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