Sweet find redhat, I read the article and it didn't mention whether it would be affixed to a ship like an engine or itself encumber a crew of astronauts..so what is your guess? The future is only a discovery away these days it seems.
It will probably be discarded before reentry I would think. The Apollo capsule only had thrusters to rotate it around so it was attached to a separate module which had the engine and was discarded before reentry. With future plans to include landing a crew on Mars and a Asteroid, we'll probably end up with the original capsule designs. I'm thinking on launch the engine will already be attached to the capsule like the Apollo CSM, or it will launch first and they will dock with it in LEO, like the Agena during the Gemini program
I'm not as educated about the space programs as you appear to be so you are guessing it will either be attached to a 'spaceship' when it goes into space or dock with a german satellite?? Maybe more of a lamens term response? sorry it is just really intresting to know where this could go..
Like this: Before launch, The Apollo Command Module (left), was attached to the Command Service Module (right - which has the main engine). Before reentry, the Command Module separated from the Command Service Module, which ends up burning up in the atmosphere Or else the engine will be in orbit first, and the craft will dock with it, like this: Gemini Agena Gemini + Agena =