Skip reentry
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Skip reentry is a reentry technique involving successive "skips" off the atmosphere to slow the spacecraft to a reasonable speed before entering, which greatly decreases the huge amount of heat that is usually generated on faster descents. Skip reentry requires precise guidance, since an overly shallow entry angle will result in skipping into space permanently, while an overly steep entry prevents the skip from happening.
The technique was used by the Zond series of circumlunar spacecraft, which planned for one skip before landing. Zond 6 and 7 made successful skip entries, although Zond 6 was largely destroyed on impact for unrelated reasons.
 | This rocketry or spacecraft article is a stub. You can help Biocrawler by expanding it (http://www.biocrawler.com/w/index.php?title=Skip_reentry&action=edit). |
