aerobrakingn.
/ˈɛːrə(ʊ)breɪkɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈɛroʊˌbreɪkɪŋ/, /ˈɛrəˌbreɪkɪŋ/ Astronautics.
Aerodynamic braking of a spacecraft when it passes repeatedly through the upper layers of a planet's atmosphere, esp. when brought about in order to enter or alter its orbit round the planet.
ΚΠ
1964 A. L. Jones in Proc. Symp. Manned Planetary Missions xi. 407 The Mars aerobraking phase of the mission produces specific requirements for subsystem and mission module design.
1980 Adv. Astronaut. Sci. 41 883 Aerobraking has come to mean very specifically the circularization of an initial elliptical orbit by repeated passes through the upper atmosphere.
1986 G. Benford & D. Brin Heart of Comet (1987) iii. 225 Edmund had just enough fuel to..attempt an aerobraking rendezvous.
2003 UFO Mag. Sept. 41/1 Aerobraking involves dipping into the atmosphere briefly to allow friction to reduce the spacecraft's speed so that it can enter orbit.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1964