Okay, but I'm not sure if that explains why the heatshield stayed intact while the pod exploded. Also, is there something in the procedural heatshield .cfg that I can tweak to make sure my pilot survives his reentry? Edit: I increased the maxtemp on the procedural heatshield to 60,000, and still the pod invariably explodes. Furthermore, the mk 1 pod actually has its own heatshield, which should be protecting the pod itself, but doesn't seem to do anything... Ideas? Edit 2: Okay I've got it, it is just the procedural heatshield. It seems to be transferring massive amounts of heat to the mk1 pod until it explodes. Gonna edit some cfgs to figure this one out, I don't want to have to send a rescue mission for my first kerbal flight. Edit 3: I WAS WRONG. Even without a procedural heat shield, the command pod mk 1 explodes out of nowhere at around 43 k, and this time, I have no idea why. Log says nothing, I'm at a loss. Launching a mk 1 straight up to 300 km and letting it fall straight down doesn't cause it to explode, it seems to be only coming in from orbit that does it, which suggests it might have something to do with the timeframe the heating occurs in. Would like a solution to this problem or an explanation, because I use mk 1s for pretty much everything...