The CM Heat Shield: AVCOAT and the 5,000-Degree Reentry
How a hand-applied ablative material protected the Command Module from the plasma inferno of reentry—a heat shield that burned away on purpose to keep the crew alive
• Matt Dennis
How a hand-applied ablative material protected the Command Module from the plasma inferno of reentry—a heat shield that burned away on purpose to keep the crew alive
The analog instrument that could guide Apollo astronauts through reentry without a computer—a scrolling chart, a scribing needle, and the thin corridor between skipping off the atmosphere and burning up