I remember this from Apollo 13, they had to hit the atmosphere at an angle, if they came in too directly they’d burn up. My stupid layman thought is that I’d want to come in directly because if the atmosphere is making me burn up I’d want to take the directest and shortest route to landing so that there’s less atmosphere to burn me up. Obviously that’s not how it works, why not
In: Planetary Science
How quickly you heat up is based on how thick the air is and how fast you are moving. In thin air you can move quickly, in thick air you are more limited.
They are traveling through space at incredibly high speeds. If they enter the dense air of the lower atmosphere at those speeds, then it will burn up. What they have to do is enter the thinner air of the upper atmosphere, and stay there until they’ve slowed down enough to safely go down into the thicker parts of the atmosphere.
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