aerocapture

English

Etymology

aero- +‎ capture

Noun

aerocapture (countable and uncountable, plural aerocaptures)

1. (astronautics) A form of aerobraking in which a spacecraft uses atmospheric drag to decelerate from a hyperbolic trajectory into a closed orbit, eliminating the need for a large orbital-insertion burn and requiring only small correction burns to raise the spacecraft's periapsis out of the atmosphere.

Related terms

• lithocapture

Verb

aerocapture (third-person singular simple present aerocaptures, present participle aerocapturing, simple past and past participle aerocaptured)

1. (intransitive) To perform (an) aerocapture.