Why doesn't the space shuttle burn up upon re-entry?

Meteors burn up once they hit Earth's atmosphere, and the space shuttle would do the same if it wasn't protected. Learn more about meteors and the technologies that keep the space shuttle from burning up in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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brain Stuff from how Stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi,

(00:27):
Am marciall Brain with today's question. Meteors burn up when
they hit the atmosphere. Why doesn't the space shuttle burn up?
When a small meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere, it goes
from traveling through a vacuum to traveling through air. Traveling
through a vacuum is effortless, it takes no energy at all,
but traveling through air is a completely different story. A

(00:49):
meteor moving through the vacuum space typically travels at speeds
reaching tens of thousands of miles per hour. When the
meteor hits our atmosphere, the air in front of it
compressed is incredibly quickly. When a gas is compressed, its
temperature rises. This causes the meteor to heat up so
much that it glows. The air burns the meteor until

(01:11):
there is nothing left. Re Entry temperatures can reach as
high as three thousand degrees fahrenheit. Obviously, it would not
be good for a spacecraft to burn up when it
re enters the atmosphere. Two technologies are used to allow
spacecraft to re enter. One is called a blade of
technology and the other is called insulating tile technology. In

(01:32):
a blade of technology, the surface of the heat shield
melts and vaporizes. In the process, the vapor carries away
a heat. This is the technology that protected the Apollo spacecraft.
The space shuttles are protected by special silica tiles. Silica
or s I O two is an incredible insulator. It's

(01:53):
possible to hold a space shuttle tile by the edge
and then heat up the center of the tile with
a blowtorch. The tile insulates so well that no heat
makes it to the outer edges. These tiles insulate so
well on the space shuttle that they keep the heat
of reentry from ever reaching the body of the spacecraft.

(02:14):
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