What potential outcome results from an excessively shallow entry angle during re-entry?
Answer
The vehicle generates insufficient drag and may skip off the air back into space.
The angle relative to the horizon defines the narrow entry corridor of survival. If the entry angle is too shallow, the spacecraft essentially grazes the upper layers of the atmosphere without achieving sufficient bite or drag to slow down substantially. In this scenario, the vehicle behaves much like a flat stone thrown across water, using the denser air boundary as a trampoline, causing it to 'skip' back out of the atmosphere and potentially remain in orbit or an unrecoverable trajectory. This failure mode has historically affected unrecoverable stages or upper-stage modules.
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