Awesome 🙂

Maybe some other variables to consider,

Hmm, I think it could work if based solely on velocity and atmosphere pressure/density

Earth atmosphere in Pioneer ends at 24km pressure and density are then 0.0, but I think reentry friction starts at about 80km.

Pioneer is suposed to be based on reality.  In that case you have found a bug, it is not by design. It was likely caused by the atmosphere rewrite of several months ago.

 Certainly 0 atmosphere pressure at 24km is not correct. Some aircraft fly at 20km.

  However, you are reading atmosphere pressure from a figure with only 2 decimal places.  After 30km the Earth's atmosphere is so thin that only less than 1/100 of an atmosphere remains, which would not be displayed by the readout with 2 decimal places.

 By the time you reach 100km, your flying through just 0.00001 atmospheres 🙂  Which is still "enough" to fry your ship 😉

Yes, I think it might be a bug. Heating of hull should also probably start much earlier from what I can google.

Thanks for the input s2odan.