when coming back from space, why do astronauts don’t just use a parachute all the way down?

Question

when coming back from space, why do astronauts don’t just use a parachute all the way down?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Orbits are very fast. You don’t want to hit the ground at that speed, you’ll get smashed.
You also don’t want to hit the air at that speed. You’ll melt.
So we use heat shields to kinda skip into the atmosphere. Kind of like a stone, and on each skip we get a little slower and deeper into the atmosphere until you get to the very dense part right above the ground. Then you use a parachute to finish bleeding off that speed.