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Old March 5th 07, 02:53 AM posted to sci.space.history
robert casey
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Default Did Apollo do a burn prior to re-entry?



Which brings up the question: What would happen if it did skip off the
atmosphere?
Does it go into some odd orbit around Earth, or does it go clean out of
orbit and into solar orbit?


It wouldn't make solar orbit, but it might bounce into a long looping
orbit that would return it to the upper atmosphere a day or two later.
Bad news for the astronauts, as the command module only has supplies
and oxygen that lasts for only a few hours.