Why re-entry briefly cuts radio contact

Pallab GhoshScience correspondent During re-entry there is usually a short “communications blackout”, but this isn’t a glitch – it’s a well understood piece of physics that actually helps engineers design safer missions. As Orion ploughs into thicker air at several kilometres a second, the gas around it is heated so fiercely that it turns into plasma: a cloud of charged particles that wraps around the heatshield. Radio waves from the capsule’s antennas have to pass through this plasma sheath to