Won’t the speed is reaches cause heat damage from air friction?
“Won’t the speed is reaches cause heat damage from air friction?”
But it only sees that for 1 minute prior to the firing of the rocket thrusters at 200,000 feet. And then those thrusters only fire for another minute, and they’re well clear of the atmosphere. So all of heating is confined to, maybe, 90 seconds - which may well prevent damage.