heat shield

noun

Definition of heat shield

: a barrier of ablative material to protect a space capsule from heat on its entry into an atmosphere

Examples of heat shield in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And in 2014, a test version of the craft was sent into Earth orbit to test its heat shields. — Chabeli Herrera, orlandosentinel.com, "NASA’s Orion astronaut capsule endures intense test over the Space Coast. Up next: The moon," 2 July 2019 There had been space capsules with heat shields for re-entry. — Oliver Morton, WIRED, "The Beauty and Madness of Sending a Man to the Moon," 4 June 2019 In all the earlier spacecraft, the engine was somewhere else—strapped over the heat shield in the Mercury capsule, in its own separate chamber on the Geminis, the Vostoks and Soyuzes, the Apollo service module. — Oliver Morton, WIRED, "The Beauty and Madness of Sending a Man to the Moon," 4 June 2019 The launch will test everything from the engines to the heat shield to make sure the design is capable of everything Elon Musk envisions. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "SpaceX Is Finally Ready to Test Its 'Starship'," 18 Mar. 2019 The heat shield is a critical piece of hardware, and is the chief way to slow the probe down. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Why Mars InSight Will Be a Mission of Firsts," 23 Nov. 2018 The heat shield can’t tilt more than one degree in any direction without risking damage to the rest of the craft. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "NASA is shooting a spaceship at the sun. It might help us solve a huge mystery.," 8 Aug. 2018 If the Soyuz loses its orientation, the capsule could expose its hatch, rather than the heat shield, to temperatures upwards of 3,000 degrees F. That would kill the crew. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Ballistic Reentry: How Astronauts Survive a Failed Launch," 11 Oct. 2018 Because they are not protected by the probe’s heat shield, the antennas are constructed from niobium C-103, a high-temperature alloy that can withstand intense heat, the Lab said. — James Rogers, Fox News, "NASA's Parker Solar Probe gets closer to 'touching the Sun'," 6 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'heat shield.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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heat-shock protein

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Last Updated

13 Jul 2019

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The first known use of heat shield was in 1962

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