11 Facts About Reentry capsule

Reentry capsule is the portion of a space capsule which returns to Earth following a spaceflight.

The shape is determined partly by aerodynamics; a Reentry capsule is aerodynamically stable falling blunt end first, which allows only the blunt end to require a heat shield for atmospheric entry.

Materials for the Reentry capsule are designed in different ways, like the Apollo command module's aluminum honeycomb structure.

The space capsule must be strong enough to withstand reentry forces such as drag, and must reenter at a precise angle of attack to prevent a skip off the surface of the atmosphere or destructively high accelerations.

Apollo command module reentered with the center of mass offset from the center line; this caused the Reentry capsule to assume an angled attitude through the air, providing lift that could be used for directional control.

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Engineers building a reentry capsule must take forces such as gravity and drag into consideration.

The Reentry capsule must be strong enough to slow down quickly, must endure extremely high or low temperatures, and must survive the landing.

Apollo Command Module reentered with the center of mass offset from the center line; this caused the Reentry capsule to assume an angled attitude through the air, providing a sideways lift to be used for directional control.

The amount of drag on a Reentry capsule depends on many things, including the density of the air, and the shape, mass, diameter and roughness of the Reentry capsule.

Reentry capsule is the "middle" module of the three-part Soyuz or Shenzhou spacecraft – the orbital module is located at the front of the spacecraft, with the service or equipment module attached to the rear.

Soyuz 5 almost ended in disaster, when the reentry capsule entered the atmosphere nose first – attributed to a failure of the service module to separate similar to that on the Vostok 1 flight.