What goes
up, has to eventually come down….mostly!
•Re-entry is perhaps the most dangerous portion of
spaceflight. You re-enter the atmosphere at close to 17,000 mph and travel
through super-heated charged plasma as your craft
creates friction with atmospheric gases that easily exceed 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.
•In a planned re-entry, a craft will
perform a retrograde burn in the opposite direction of its momentum
until its periapsis is low
enough to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere where friction will continue
to slow the craft.
