A capsule falls back through the atmosphere at extreme speed, compressing the air ahead of its heat shield into a superheated plasma sheath that glows white-hot at the leading face and trails ionized gas behind it. As drag bleeds off velocity through the thickest part of the atmosphere, the plasma sheath intensifies then fades, the sky shifts from black space to hazy blue, and a striped parachute canopy unfurls to decelerate the capsule for a gentle drift toward the ground.