# Why no burning up when exiting the atmosphere?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 15, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772 "2013-04-15T16:19:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/21 "2013-04-16T10:38:43Z")

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Post reported for thread change.

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**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/22 "2013-04-16T13:05:42Z")

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Aww. Don’t do that. That was one of the lighter moments in my day.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/23 "2013-04-16T13:18:05Z")

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I have a space bike, too, it looks really cool when silhouetted against the Moon.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/24 "2013-04-17T01:23:17Z")

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You know who ELSE had a space bike?

Jim Raynor.

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/25 "2013-04-17T03:27:37Z")

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My roller skates had two external fuel tanks each.

I bought them from ACME Roller Skates.

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**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/26 "2013-04-17T10:07:19Z")

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> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> Post reported for thread change.

To where? Why is this not GQ material?

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/27 "2013-04-17T10:09:20Z")

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“Post” not “thread”. Check the post two before **Richard’s**.

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**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-burning-up-when-exiting-the-atmosphere/655772/28 "2013-04-17T13:52:22Z")

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High speed aircraft like the SR-71, X-15, and even the Concorde had considerable engineering challenges to deal with the atmospheric heating, just not at the level of reentry. Some X-15 flights even used ablative heat shielding.

As mentioned already most velocity gained during orbital ascent is above regions of most significant aerodynamic heating, otherwise would just be wasting delta-v.

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