SITUATION At T minus six seconds, the space shuttle’s three main engines ignite and pilots prepare for launch. At T mi- nus three seconds, the main engines reach 90 percent of thrust. At T minus zero, flight computers ignite two of the world’s largest segmented boosters. Boasting a combined thrust of nearly six million pounds, these leviathan motors heave the shuttle from the earth and hurl it into orbit. As you might guess, these 149 foot tall, 12 foot diameter, 1.3 million pound (when loaded) boosters are quite expensive to build and maintain. To combat the high costs associated with the boosters, our engineers de- signed the rocket motor segments to be recovered, refurbished, and reused as many as 20 times each. This complex task requires special facilities and equipment. To trans

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