China's Chang'e 5 aces lunar orbit docking needed to bring moon samples home

[Admin]

Two Chinese spacecraft have successfully carried out a docking in lunar orbit to bring home the first samples from the moon in over 40 years.

China's Chang'e 5 aces lunar orbit docking needed to bring moon samples home : Read more

 

[Avi]

"bounce off the atmosphere"

It's funny, this phrase never used to bother me until I started playing Kerbal Space Program. That taught me that things don't bounce off the atmosphere - they pass through the atmosphere. Since the atmosphere is round and their flight is straight (or less round), they will enter the atmosphere and pass through progressively thicker parts of it until it reaches the closest point of approach to the surface of the Earth. After that, as it moves away from the Earth again, it goes through less and less thick atmosphere before finally leaving again. No 'bounce'.

I think we should collectively try to phase out the phrase 'bounce off the atmosphere' and replace it with 'pass through the atmosphere'. Our juniors who grew up with Kerbal Space Program are already laughing at us...