Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
"Oz Lander" wrote in
:

What would it take to slow
the shuttle down whilst in orbit, enough to allow it to re-enter at a
slower speed?

The same amount of fuel that was needed to accelerate it in the first
place, plus lots more to get that extra fuel up. To avoid all that,
spacecraft use the atmosphere for braking. They've been doing that
since the beginning of manned spaceflight, it's not specific to the
shuttle. They just accept the risk associated with that method as a
tradeoff against the extra complication of carrying those enormous
masses of fuel all along.

Regards



They could aero-brake from orbit slower but it would take
forever. If they launched an unmanned fuel source, docked
and then transfered fuel it could be done.

Keep it simple the new Orion(Apollo on steroids) will work
just fine. The Russians have done a good job with safe and
repeated journeys from orbit