NASA's first test of its next-generation heat shield is delayed until at least November 9th

Frictions exerted during atmospheric reentry are enough to rend spacecraft into comets of glowing slag if not properly mitigated -- that's a good thing, when intentional , but otherwise nearly always very bad . The Space Shuttle, when it was still in service, was designed to hit the outermost edges of Earth's atmosphere traveling at around Mach 25 (~17,000 MPH), then ride a wave of superheated plasma -- generated because frictional forces are so great that they literally tear the surrounding air...