> so it's definitely capable of re-use without being stripped and cleaned. How many times I don't know
I'm confident SpaceX themselves would have tested multiple engines to failure with many, many re-light, shutdown, re-light cycles so they have a good understanding of what's going to happen when they try to re-use one of these things.
There is no way they'd be going to all this trouble to design a rocket that can come back, all the trouble of giving it someplace to land if they were not already confident the engine can be used at least a few times.
I'm confident SpaceX themselves would have tested multiple engines to failure with many, many re-light, shutdown, re-light cycles so they have a good understanding of what's going to happen when they try to re-use one of these things.
There is no way they'd be going to all this trouble to design a rocket that can come back, all the trouble of giving it someplace to land if they were not already confident the engine can be used at least a few times.