Project Fire Photographic Summary and Record of Reentry Phenomena at Hyperbolic Velocities

Project Fire was undertaken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to measure the total and radiative heating experienced by a blunt body reentering the earth's atmosphere at 11 300 meters per second. This report presents a photographic record of the Fire II spacecraft during its reentry. The photographs were clear enough to establish the times of major events, and they show that adequate-separation was maintained between the reentry package and the spent Antares. This report also identifies operational problems encountered in spacecraft reentry at hyperbolic velocities and presents the solutions satisfactorily employed.