From: hk_valid_2004@gmx.net   
      
   LRW wrote:   
   > I'm just an average person with an English degree, so I'm unfamiliar   
   > with the science and physics and space craft reentry, so this is   
   > likely a very stupid question.   
   >   
   > But it's my uneducated understanding that returning space craft, like   
   > all objects entering our atmosphere, super-heat from the friction of   
   > falling through our atmosphere.   
   > Which is why all crafts from Apollo to the space shuttles must have   
   > carefully crafted heat shields and enter at a VERY narrow angle to   
   > prevent either burn-up or "skipping" off the atmosphere.   
   >   
   > Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the commercial SpaceShipOne   
   > reach the very edge of the atmosphere? Doesn't it also need the   
   > observe the same careful considerations for reentry?   
   > If not, why? In simple "Physics for English Majors" language. =)   
   >   
      
   SpaceShipOne dropped down from a height of 100km, while a shuttle drops   
   down from a height of some 400km AND has additionally a horizontal   
   velocity of some 8km/s. And an Apollo spacecraft dropped down from some   
   400000km. That's in both cases a *LOT* of kinetic energy more to kill   
   than SSO had to.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)