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Did Apollo do a burn prior to re-entry?
At the risk of sounding like a smart aleck, I think the answer is yes . . . or perhaps more accurately, it depends. It probably depends on the angle at which the reentry had been attempted, vechicle velocity, and the weight of the vehicle, which increased as more and more samples were brought back. I suspect that it would be a funny- shaped earth orbit, but maybe someone more proficient at orbital mechanics can tell us for sure. I can picture it losing enough velocity that it travels outbound from the Earth to a very high altitude, stops, and then falls straight into the atmosphere and burns up. Pat I hate the word "skip". Makes it sound like the atmosphere gives it some sort of push back up. In fact, of course, the atmosphere just slows it down, and if not enough, then the ship's speed is enough to allow it to increase it's distance from the earth. I presume it would go into some highly eccentric orbit, and re-enter the atmosphere perhaps the next few passes, depending on how far outside the re entry window they were. |
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