Re-entry

The Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when his spacecraft, Soyuz 1, crashed upon re-entry.

Soyuz 11 cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev were killed in re-entry in 1971. They were returning to Earth after successfully manning Salyut 1, the first Soviet space station.

The mission of Apollo 13, though, was a near disaster as an explosion damaged the craft on the way to the Moon. The mission had to be aborted and re-entry was achieved only with great difficulty.

On July 11, 1979, after more than six years in space, the Skylab space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Most of Skylab burned up upon re-entry. A few fragments fell to the ground in an uninhabited part of Australia.

The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in February 2003 after debris punctured the orbiter's insulation, allowing superheated gases to penetrate its wing.

Some of that space debris, especially those that are in low-Earth orbit, fall back to the planet, and much of it burns up during re-entry.

a re-entry into public life

Shortly after its re-entry into traffic, it was named County Durham on October 1 that year, although it was denamed later.