why is atmosphere reentry such an issue? If it is just because of speed hitting the atmosphere why can’t the spacecraft just slow down before and synchronise with earth rotation?
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You could totally do that. The problem is that this would take a lot of fuel. Like A LOT. I don’t know the exact math, but ballpark is you need to slow down by the same amount that the rocket needed to accelerate in order to make orbit in the first place. Using the atmosphere to slow down is a neat trick to get free aerobraking.
If the earth didn’t have an atmosphere, ot would be quite difficult to land again.
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