How to avoid re-entry heat

[KASA Space]

Top of the day.

I'm developing a space shuttle of sorts, and I just completed a successful orbit of 100km circular with loads of fuel left. *high fives self*

Problem is, the re-entry heat is too much for the nose cone, front control winglets, and the landing gear, which... well, trying to land a plane without landing gear is not that easy.

Is there a re-entry angle I can boost into that has minimal re-entry heat? I have noticed sometimes when I re-enter from planets and moons, that sometimes I don't even get the flame effect, and only get the mach effect. I dunno if that's what I want.

Any help would me much appreciated. Thank you!

[sal_vager]

Set yourself on an orbit with a low periapsis, 30km is good.

Keep your nose up, 25° to 35° is fine, you want drag, you want to slow down as quickly as you can without breaking apart.

Once you're below about 1000m/s you'll be fine

[Arkalius]

Yes, high angle of attack is a good idea, though it can be hard to maintain once you get low enough. Airbrakes are also very helpful. You basically want to get a lot of your speed off before you get below about 35km or so, as that's where things get really hot.

[KASA Space]

So, basically do an aerobrake, then keep my angle of attack high?

[sal_vager]

Yes, and airbrakes can help as they produce a lot of drag, if they are on top of your craft the drag can help keep your nose up.

If I'm too high I'll sometimes roll inverted and pull up, so Kerbin is "above" me, this helps push me lower into the atmosphere so I lose speed more quickly.

[Laie]

Keeping the AoA high *is* the aerobrake. You don't want to dive into the air nose-first, you want it under your wings. This distributes the heat load, a) between parts, over time.

Being so ridiculously fast, you will experience some lift even very high up. It will take longer until you get down to 30km, but when you get there, you'll be much slower than you'd be if you nosedived.

[KarateF22]

Adding airbrakes would pretty much solve your reentry issues, just ensure that their control surface functionality is disabled or you will get a ton of drag when maneuvering.

[OddFunction]

Make sure your re-entry takes as much time in the atmosphere as possible. Vertical re-entry = death.

[KASA Space]

I've launched my station core. Time to test it's docking, and then I'll do all the suggestions for re-entry. Thank you for all your help, and I'll let you all know what happens.

- - - Updated - - -

It worked. Air brakes slowed it down easily enough. Thank you all so much.