So, if get rid of all or most of orbital speed you will go straight down, and falling at rate of around 9.7 m/s/s, so after say 500 seconds of falling you will travel about 745 miles and be traveling at 4.8 km/sec [10,842 mph- about 3 miles a second] and are about a minute from hitting a wall called the atmosphere. Now if you had a "rocket belt" that give about 2.4 km/sec of delta-v in about minute burn, this would probably be about time to start it- it would need to provide just over 4 gees for a minute [the actual gees range because rocket fuel is used up might be between 2- 6 gees].

without the 2.4 rocket delta-v it be certain death- you would be a bug on the windscreen.

A two stage rocket, which provided say 2.4 km/sec, with second stage giving say 1.8 km/sec plus a parachute could probably get you safely to the surface from 1000 miles high falling directly towards earth.


I saw this only after my latest reply to Tom (subject title "Let's get back down to earth") - we're basically in agreement with you having provided the actual calculations, thanks. As I wrote to Tom, you'd either need a heatshield, or some kind of powered descent, which in your case seem to be strap-on rockets or some kind of emergency egress vehicle.