wrote:

Ron Lee wrote:
wrote:
How do you get rid of all the velocity than builds up as you decend
through near vacuum and your energy of postition becomes energy of
motion?

Yes potential energy becomes kinetic energy and that is taken care of
by friction during reentry.

And thus we have come full circle and forgotten the original question,
which was why does the shuttle have to land so fast.

Jim here is the original post. Has nothing to do with landing:

"Just watched a show on the Columbis disaster, and a question came to
me.

Why does the shuttle have to be travelling so fast to re-enter the
atmosphere?"

Ron Lee