normally everything manmade which comes back to earth is somewhat pulled into the athmosphere by the earth's gravity.
some rockets are intended to fly a ballistic curve and plunge back without using any propulsion anymore, other equipment, like the space shuttle which is in a stable orbit for a while uses thrusters for a breaking maneuver to slow its speed to the point that the centrifugal forces keeping it up there became weaker than the gravity.
As a result everything manmade which comes back is being pulled down by gravity.
so once this process starts the movement of a rocket or the shuttles is slowed down by the friction of air molecules in the athmosphere which cause reentering vessels to heat up to tremendeous temperatures.
This effect is intentionally used to let useless equipment like old satellites burn up in the atmosphere. (Nasa calls it controlled de-orbitting). Or the vessel must somehow be protected from the heat with some sort of shielding.
This shielding can be ceramic tiles like those used on the space shuttle, or a kind of abrasive substance which burns away in a controlled manner like it was done with the command modules of the apollo (moon) missions.
Once rockets or space shuttle are in denser atmosphere one can possibly fly vessels to a landing strip, like the shuttle, deploy parachutes, like the apollo capsules, or use parachutes and breaking rockets like the russians do with their capsules.
2007-03-10 14:54:09
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answer #1
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answered by blondnirvana 5
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Manned rockets such as the Gemini and theSaturn V ruturned in capsules with a protective covering.Today the only manned spacecraft we use is the space shuttle.Which is a reusable spacecraft that launches like a rocket and comes through reentry gliding like a plane.
2007-03-11 13:18:34
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answer #2
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answered by hkyboy96 5
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because of the fact that's a criminal offense, outrageously complicated, ordinary to make a mistake and unsafe to fail... additionally, you will possibly desire a launch pad, sufficient room to pull it off and be sure that no harm may be led to to the encircling human beings and property, to no longer point out the apparent: What are you going to DO in area?? have you ever bought someplace to land? Emergency ingredients? Any way of having help up there if something is going incorrect? there are such quite some variables and in case you do no longer evaluate them, then your rocket somewhat isn't something extra beneficial than a puppy venture- and one that gets shot down the 2d the government locate out approximately it, too!
2016-10-18 01:59:10
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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They don't. They burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere. Manned vehicles use braking rockets to slow down so the friction of the air don't get hot enough to burn them up. The space shuttle is big but has no extra room for braking rockets and relies of ceramic insulators to resist the heat.
2007-03-10 13:58:50
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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Directed by Electrical control systems(?)
2007-03-10 13:46:04
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answer #5
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answered by JAMES 4
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