Spacecraft re-entry

[Boots217]

When a spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere the outer surface starts to burn away with friction. What is the 8 letter for this process

[beso]

The surface does not burn away at all. It is made of a refractory ceramic oxide that resists incredible temperatures.

[dundurn]

It all depends on the spacecraft - Mercury, Gemini,and Apollo as well as all the Russian manned programmes used ablative heatshields - -so the word you're looking for is ablation. They work by shedding heat by burning (ablating) some of the surface structure of the heatshield.

The space shuttle works in a completely different way using heat resistant tiles, pyroceram nosecone, and thermal protective blanket material.

[Boots217]

Thank you Dundurn