Actually, Newton's impact depth equation tells you that an unpowered object generally won't sustain high velocity beyond a certain distance when impacting into

Actually, Newton's impact depth equation tells you that an unpowered object generally won't sustain high velocity beyond a certain distance when impacting into something (in this case the atmosphere): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth In this case, the ratio of densities is maybe 2000, so without gravity the meteor would expend all its initial kinetic energy after traveling 2000 times its diameter through the atmosphere. That's less than 1 kilometer. Hence, it will reach terminal velocity long before hitting the surface. (See also the Meteorite part in the wiki article).