aerocapture
Meanings
noun
- A form of aerobraking in which a spacecraft uses atmospheric drag to decelerate from a hyperbolic trajectory into a closed orbit, eliminating the need for a large orbital-insertion burn and requiring only small correction burns to raise the spacecraft's periapsis out of the atmosphere.
verb
- To perform (an) aerocapture.
Word forms
Etymology
From aero- + capture.
Related words
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