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atmospheric braking

American  

noun

Rocketry.

  1. a technique of reentry in which the vehicle is maneuvered in the upper atmosphere so as to lose velocity by utilizing drag without overheating.

Example Sentences

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The higher orbit will reduce the effect of atmospheric braking and extend the satellite's lifetime until at least 1989, or possibly even into the early 1990s, when the sun again erupts.

From Time Magazine Archive

Starting from the platform, where it had no effective weight, it was capable of direct descent to the Earth without spiralling or atmospheric braking.

From Space Tug by Leinster, Murray

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.