when coming back from space, why do astronauts don’t just use a parachute all the way down?
In: Engineering
If you travel straight up with something like a balloon you can basically (with a pressure suit) jump out and skydive with a parachute. An astronaut stays in space by traveling so insanely fast around the earth that they don’t immediately fall back into it. When you are traveling that fast and hit air you burn up from the intense friction. So when re-entering atmosphere from orbit you have to slow down and hide behind a heat shield.
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