Alan Erskine wrote:
Then why can't they? Why do such problems keep happening?



You know that problem SpaceX's Falcon ran into with the engine still
developing some thrust after shutdown?
The von Braun team knew about that clean back in WW II, as it was one of
the main causes of the poor accuracy of the V-2 missile - which ended up
tumbling end-over-end due to the effect after engine shutdown, so in
what attitude it reentered the atmosphere wasn't predictable.

Pat