Quote:
Originally Posted by NEOWatcher
I wondered that myself (once, briefly, and not worth mentioning). But; if you look at drawings of the Pheonix, it is concievable (to me) that the crew cabin can be detached and reenter like any other capsule.
It doesn't take a great leap of imagination.
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I think you hit the nail on the head. In this mod for Orbiter Simulator the phoenix's crew cabin is a self-contained capsule.
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2835
The raised arches directly opposite and to the sides of the windows are depicted as being the housings for the thrusters that deorbit the capsule once it's separated from the drive section.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/sc...r/phoenix1.jpg
The drive section simply remains in orbit and the nose cone of the capsule contains the parachute. If I remember correctly, it also depicts the heatshield as deploying from the rear of the capsule where it had been mated to the drive section. In the mod they simply animated it to expand a bit in order to properly cover the profile of the raised arches and not just the body of the capsule. Basically, it would have had to have been some kind of inflatable shield. The idea's not from canon per se, but it does fit.