system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are aerodynamics important for space travel?
gpt
Absolutely. There are several ways in which it is important:

1) When launching into space, rocket designers must be careful about dynamic pressure. Usually launchers have a fairing to protect the satellite, which is dropped right after leaving the atmosphere. Also they try not to travel too fast before reaching a (near) vacuum because drag would be too high.

2) Space is not a perfect vacuum. Some residual atmosphere in the proximity of a planet may produce drag, causing orbits to decay and inducing torques on the spacecraft if not appropriately taken into account. Orbital decay is usually compensated with propulsion, torques to some extent can be compensated by the attitude control system but it's always better to make the spacecraft symmetric or passively stabilized (to avoid saturating reaction wheels or to save propellant).

3) Atmospheric entry at speeds much faster than Mach 5, usually called *hypersonic*, causing spacecrafts to burn up if they don't have a good heat shield.