I didn't know the space shuttle reused it's boosters. Apparently the two solid rocket boosters deployed parachutes after separation and were refurbished. Interesting! However the main booster could not be reused...
Yeah, IIRC they reused the steel segments holding the fuel, not sure about the rest (parachutes, nozzle, thrust vectoring hardware & the APU powering that, etc). And indeed, if you go the SRB way, a modern carbon fibre single use booster would likely be much more efficient (fuel ammount vs weight of construction to hold it) and cheaper. But still not cheaper than a reusable rocket of course. :)
I believe it was actually one of the more strongly limiting factors on the frequency with which space shuttle launches could be conducted because the factory producing them could not turn them out particularly quickly.
Engines had to be totally rebuilt after each flight. SRBs cost around $70M each IIRC. The tank was extremely expensive because it had to be as light as possible, while keeping Hydrogen super chilled without leaking. They came out with lighter tanks later in program made out of more exotic materials.
Reused booster ruptured under improper launch criteria revised for management and public relations reasons.
Would it have been okay if it weren’t for the wrong go? Maybe, but still the potato quality refurbishment of flown boosters could have done it sooner or later.
AFAIK the SRBs were made in segments to make them rail transportable from the factory (in a state with a friendly congressman ;-)) to the launch pad. There should be pictures of the segments being transported on rail from that one time the train derailed due to trestle collapsing under it.
SRB separation happened when the shuttle reached ~3,100 mph. The external tank was jettisoned at ~17,500 mph, more than 5 times the speed (or 25 times the kinetic energy that would need to be dissipated in the atmosphere to recover).
AFAIK there were some studies for that - it was doable delta-v wise. I wonder about the mess caused by the isolation foam deteriorating over time though.
The main booster (all three of them) were attached to the orbiter and were re-used, though not without refurbishment. (Falcon 9 is also refurbished after each launch).
The shuttle had two boosters, not three. It also had an external tank that burned in the atmosphere.
The boosters were technically reusable, but refurbishing them after the corrosive bath they've taken by their landing in the ocean was much more expensive than making new ones from scratch.
You'll note that SpaceX lands their rockets on a barge, instead of landing them on water and fishing them out later - that's because they want to keep the salt water out of the rocket.
The Sovirt Buran shuttle had 5 boosters - the main Energia hydrolox core stage and 4 modified Zenit boosters. There were even plans to land the boosters and reuse them, the main issue being how to get the massive boosters back from the endless wateland around Baykonur.
Also unlike the Space Shuttle, the 5 boosters did all the orbital boosting, Buran only had small orbital correction engines on board (like Shuttle OMS), all big engines were down on the boosters.
