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An orbital craft is moving at hypersonic speeds, which is a especially tricky when going backwards. Things moving through fluids tend to want to flip over so th
by db48x 2y ago
An orbital craft is moving at hypersonic speeds, which is a especially tricky when going backwards. Things moving through fluids tend to want to flip over so that the part with the highest drag is at the rear, so that drag is minimized. Meanwhile the engine bay of a rocket is not generally shaped to have low drag when pushing through the air.
- tzs 2y agoWouldn't any spacecraft designed to return to Earth non-destructively, regardless of whether it was going to land vertically or land like an airplane or land with a parachute, first slow down to subsonic speeds before getting to the phase of the flight where the landing system is invoked?
- immibis 2y agoIt slows down by burning stuff and making hot stuff go out one end. That end is the one worse for air drag, because it has all the bits where the hot stuff comes out.
- db48x 2y agoNo. Go watch a Falcon 9 booster recovery <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-_90o1KLkM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-_90o1KLkM> on Youtube; you’ll see that when it starts its landing burn it is ~5 miles up and flying engines first towards the ground at ~1300 miles per hour.