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Overview
ablation shield
Quick Reference
The heat shield on a spacecraft to protect it during re-entry. The intense heat generated by friction during the high-speed entry of the craft into the Earth's atmosphere burns away ablative (evaporating) materials on the heat shield, absorbing the heat and protecting the craft. The space shuttle uses a different kind of non-ablative protection made up of thousands of heat-absorbing tiles.
Subjects: Science and technology — Astronomy and Cosmology
