"You understand," said Mackley, "that the amount of fuel we can pack into a Hornet is severely limited by the size of the craft. There is not enough to perform the complicated braking maneuvers necessary to return to the Satellite. "Therefore, the Hornets make no attempt to return to the Satellite from which they were launched. Instead, they return directly to Earth. This may sound contradictory, but remember that the planet has a heavy envelope of air, which the Satellite Bases, of course, have not. We use that air to brake the ships, through friction."
"But Captain, wouldn't the Hornet burn as soon as it touched atmosphere?"
"Ordinarily, if it plunged directly in, yes. But there are techniques for slowing your flight through friction without heating excessively. Basically, the operation is the same as skipping a flat stone on a lake. The Hornet actually only skims the atmosphere, entering at a very shallow angle. The entire delta-wing of the ship is a control surface. That much area, even at such extreme heights, gives a certain amount of control, and the pilot can pull up out of the atmosphere again before heating has become too extreme. He has also been considerably slowed by the same friction which causes the heating. Do you follow me?"
"Yes, I su............