From: lou@cadence.com   
      
   "Alejandro Zuzek"  writes:   
      
   >I know that a launch from the equator to a zero inclination orbit gets all   
   >of the advantage of the Earth rotation, but I was wondering if this   
   >advantage works the other way round too. In other words, does a reentering   
   >spacecraft from the due east equatorial orbit have significantly less   
   >demanding conditions than a spacecraft entering from a non-zero inclination   
   >orbit? Has this advantage ever been exploited?   
      
   I don't know about Earth, but this certainly applied to the Jupiter probe   
   on Galileo.  The had to land going with the rotation to reduce an enormous   
   entry speed to something barely survivable.  Of course this effect on   
   Jupiter is much more signficant since it's bigger and rotates faster   
   (12.6 km/sec as opposed to 0.46 km/sec at the equator)   
      
   (The only spacecraft that I   
   >know of that reentered from an almost equatorial orbit was ESA's ARD, have   
   >there been others?)   
      
      
      
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