Topic summary
Atmospheric Reentry
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Atmospheric entry.
Thermal protection systems
A thermal protection system, or TPS, is the barrier that protects a spacecraft during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry. Multiple approaches for the thermal protection of spacecraft are in use, among them ablative heat shields, passive cooling, and active cooling of spacecraft surfaces. In general they can be divided into two categories: ablative TPS and reusable TPS.