From: ihatespam@period.com   
      
   "Andrew Gray"  wrote in message   
   news:slrnbtkjrl.hjc.andrew.gray@compsoc.dur.ac.uk...   
   > In article , Reed   
   > Snellenberger wrote:   
   > > henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) wrote in   
   > > news:HprCDr.My8@spsystems.net:   
      
   %< snip >%   
   Hate to be the buzzkill, but as I understand it, hitting the water at any   
   speed over about 20 mph is essentially the same as landing on brick.  After   
   slowing down from 17,000 mph, I wouldn't think that it'd be a big problem   
   shaving off the last 20 so that you can land on solid ground.  I beleive the   
   Gemini and Apollo mission designs called for water landings because they   
   wanted to be able to deorbit almost immediately if anything went wrong (the   
   majority of an equatorial ground track is over water), and it gave them a   
   lot more flexibility to deal with weather - I beleive one Gemini mission   
   landed in the Indian ocean because there was a storm in the primary landing   
   area in the Pacific.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)