Capsules are lifting bodies too. Apollo had a L/D of 0.368 and "steered" by rotating. Dragon uses the same technique (albeit with a slightly lower L/D), and Dra

Capsules are lifting bodies too. Apollo had a L/D of 0.368 and "steered" by rotating. Dragon uses the same technique (albeit with a slightly lower L/D), and Dragon 2 will have a tungsten ballast sled so it can change its angle of attack dynamically during re-entry. Even simple cylinders can be lifting bodies. Shuttle and Falcon 9 both have a L/D of 1.[1] On Falcon 9 the first stage acts as a lifting body, using the grid fins to "trim" the big cylindrical body making it act like a wing. In the SpaceX landing videos you can see the stage pitch up on reentry. This is no accident. Upward lift = more atmosphere traveled through = more drag = less landing fuel needed = more payload to orbit. A nice optimization by the SpaceX team! >you don't actually need wings by the way, it's kind of a common misconception around, you just need some lift over drag number, or lift vector - and steer back to the launch pad --- Elon Musk[2] [1] https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/04/04/musk-previews-busy-year-ahead-for-spacex/ https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/04/04/musk-previews-busy-yea... [2] http://shitelonsays.com/transcript/npc-luncheon-with-elon-musk-2011-09-29 http://shitelonsays.com/transcript/npc-luncheon-with-elon-mu...