does the shuttle slow down in orbit and then come back to earth by firing the shuttles engines?

Answer 1

Almost... The slow-down step is the engine-firing step. The shuttle turns around to face backwards in its orbit and fires its engines just enough to have its orbit begin to decay. Then it turns around again and glides down into the atmosphere, executing several S-turns to slow the craft down from ~Mach 25 to subsonic speeds so that it can land.

Answer 2

You almost have it: the shuttle fires its engines in order to slow down enough to begin to fall out of its orbit. However, this part of the slowing down is not very dramatic.

The important deceleration of the shuttle does not take place by the rockets. It would be impossible: it would take the same amount of fuel as it took to accelerate it!!

So what slows it down? The atmosphere.

Interestingly, this is the most dramatic part of all of the shuttle's acceleration, and really the most dangerous part. The shuttle slams into the atmosphere at incredible speeds (like around 15,000 mph) and nearly burns up. The astronauts experience incredible forces: up to around ten times the force of gravity. Much much more than they ever felt during lift off.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

The shuttle, when outside the Earth's atmosphere, travels at a relatively constant speed. At the time where it is to re-enter, boosters are used to carefully aim the shuttle into the Earth's atmosphere. The angle which it enters is critical. If it is too steep, the shuttle will burn up; if too shallow, it can skip off the ozone layer.

The shuttle is then slowed down in the Earth's atmosphere, because of the friction of the air. This produces tremendous heat. The Shuttle is able to slow to a land-able speed, without the aid of boosters to slow it down.

Answer 4

The shuttle slows down very slightly in orbit by briefly firing its small orbital maneuvering rocket engines for a short time, which causes the low point of its orbit to dip into the upper atmosphere. Then it relies on friction with the atmosphere to do the rest of the slowing.

Answer 5

Actually, it fires its OMS engines in order to slow down. Then it turns around, assumes the position, and begins the long fall...

Answer 6

yes and before it enters the atmosphere...

Answer 7

that's right