If composite aircraft only withstand relatively low temperatures how does spaceshipone not burn up on re-entry

Question

At what speed does the spaceshipone re-enter the atmosphere and what temperatures do the spacecraft reach? At what temperatures do the resins of the composites melt at?

Answer 1

The space shuttle re-enters at 17,500 mph.

Space Ship One, since it doesn't orbit, reaches a max speed of 3,000 mph.

The tiles on the shuttle protect a majority of the shuttle from the heat generated on reentry. The heat is between 2,000-3,000 degrees. Different parts of the shuttle experience higher levels of heat than other areas. The nose takes the strongest amount.

Different composites are used on different sections. I do not have any of the data regarding when they melt or burn, but it's not much beyond the heat levels it currently takes.

Spaceship one doesn't generate any appreciable heat so it doesn't require a heat shield.

Answer 2

Carbon composites can deal with somewhat high temperatures. SpaceShipOne not only had an ascending velocity significantly less than orbital velocity, its re-entry technique guaranteed a fairly slow velocity as it came back down into thicker atmosphere layers. Also, even at its peak ascent velocity, it was going through very, very thin air such that air friction and heating would be a small fraction of that if it went that fast at sea level.

Answer 3

This is due to the fact that Spaceshit One was a Sub-Orbital craft only flying to approx 100 kilometers.

The Space Shuttle, on a typical flight to Orbital Space or the International Space Station, has to travel 360 kilometers.

The difference of flying to Sub-Orbital space is very different than flying to Orbital Space. For the Shuttle to reach orbital space it acheives a velocity of over 16,000 miles per hour.

Space Ship One is launched while already fliying in air and only required to reach Mach 3 (approx 2, 283 miles per hour) to reach low Sub-Orbital space.

When the shuttle is on re-entry, it is coming back in from a much greater orbit and much much faster velocity. Space Ship One is coming much lower in orbit and much slower.