Now this is cool.
When NASA's new Orion spacecraft took a test flight on December 5, it naturally packed some cameras on board. And NASA decided to release the footage of the craft's re-entry into earth's atmosphere.
is what astronauts returning to earth go through.
The video begins as the pod hits the atmosphere at a cool 20,000 miles per hour, and shows the trail of hot, ionized plasma ramping up in temperature as the air friction causes temperature to soar.
Luckily, spacecraft like Orion have strong heat shields to protect them from the 1,500-degree heat.