Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Skip reentry
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.
Last updated: 08-30-2005 06:09:44
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details