Thanks you guys. As suggested, I just F5 saved and decided to see what would happen. I did not fool around with trying to add more parachutes using KIS, etc.. Here's the report: Kerbodyne S3-3000 Fuel Tank - This was my first recovered part try, and as mentioned nothing seemed to work here. I got the impact speed down to 3.8 (this part has a listed impact tolerance of 6.0), and it was still no go. I just cancelled the mission. One further thought occurred to me, though. Perhaps the tank had fuel in it and that made a difference. With a fuel tank recovery it might help transferring the fuel out before touchdown. The claw connection can apparently do this. If you have the "TAC Fuel Balancer" mod (with it's dump feature), it would be easy. Otherwise, maybe not so easy if you don't have enough space in your primary vehicles tanks. Poodle Engine - Impact Tolerance 8.0, my touchdown was at 6.8. No problem here. MK3 Cockpit - (This is the big space shuttle type cockpit) Impact Tolerance 60.0, touchdown 8.4. No problem. 4th Part - Okay, I screwed up. I didn't have a 4th recovery contract. Last thought. As I saw mentioned in a few other posts and videos, many of these recovery contracts, and especially parts in Kerbin orbit, pay extremely poorly. They are probably best avoided in the first place.