: You know, this is interesting. I always thought of it the way loftus had...
: geostationary means that if you're at a higher altitude orbit, you can
: still look down and see that you essentially remain above the same
: location on Earth, all the time.

: But you're right, at that height, your actual speed (by the time it takes to
: travel your greater orbital circumference around the Earth being the same
: as at sea level for instance) is much greater than at a lower altitude -
: even though your relative location remains steady.
: (sort of like angular velocity; picture the same effect as the twirling
: skater, speeding up as she brings her arms in... or a smaller tire having
: to rotate faster than a larger one in order to keep a vehicle moving the
: same speed)

: So as your orbital height decreases, your position relative to the Earth
: location will accelerate, as the difference between sea-level orbital
: speed and speed your altitude becomes more apparent.

: However, you then factor in the increased friction of entering the
: atmosphere, which would slow you down. I would think that with a HEO jump
: from geo stationary orbit you would at first see the effect of 'speeding
: up' (relatively speaking to the surface of the Earth), and then as
: friction increases so would the heat (this would be where the re-entry
: pack kicks in), followed by slowing of your relative speed to the surface.
: Your final speed on arrival at the surface I think would entirely depend
: on how much heat friction your re-entry pack could sustain based on how
: fast you want to slow down your velocity.

: ...if that makes any sense.

: I would think, given a sufficient package, you could slow your relative
: velocity sufficiently to enter a freefall within the earth's atmosphere
: (ie, where your orbital velocity has slowed to match that of the earth's
: surface, or a relative speed of 0).

: The question is, would 26th century tech have a re-entry pack with sufficient
: protection to defend against that amount of speed reduction during
: atmospheric re-entry? (based on a geostationary orbit starting point)

: I say yes. Because Halo. :P

The lateral (orbital) velocity must not have been that great. The supercarrier (split in two parts) landed on the same mountain top and in the vicinity of the Spartan in the re-entry pack. That's the reality of what went on. Now we need to explain the dynamics of the forces involved to get them both there. :)