re: Re-entry
Well, Del, how about the double skip re-entry mode the Soviets chose for their Zond spacecrafts?
Didn't it reduce the heat load by sending the spacacraft back into space before re-entering defnitely? It's like aerobraking first, then entering the earth's atmosphere, next.
And that way, they could send the spacecraft to a very precise place.
The Russians had ideas like this but they were just ideas.
About re-using the spacecraft, maybe it's not that important. Museums would love to acquire a record holder device!;)
Raoul