I feel like the news article doesn't emphasize that you aren't "launching" the plane any more than you would by setting it on the roof. So it's really surprisin

I feel like the news article doesn't emphasize that you aren't "launching" the plane any more than you would by setting it on the roof. So it's really surprising that it all happens in <4 days. I thought atmospheric effects were much lower at that altitude, but apparently even the ISS loses about 3km every month (enough to deorbit in ~15 months).[1] The ballistic coefficient of the ISS is a whopping >500 times greater than the plane so the plane drops really fast. [1]: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9482/how-long-would-iss-stay-in-orbit-if-it-didnt-get-reboosts https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9482/how-long-woul...