Eli5: why can spacecrafts not be slowed down enough to red-enter the atmosphere without burning up?
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If you want to use rockets to slow down, then you need to carry that extra fuel to run the rockets up with you during blast-off. That’s gonna make the rocket WAY heavier. I’d estimate that it would more than ~~double~~ 15x the weight of the rocket.
One thing you have to realize is that a space ship in orbit is going over 10,000 miles per hour. That’s needed for orbit, and a lot of the fuel you launch with is just to accelerate to this speed. Any slower and you don’t orbit – you’ll fall back down. If you want a rocket to also slow you back down from 10,000 MPH as well… it’s.. it’s too much.
Air drag slowdown is just way better from an engineering standpoint.
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