: Either way, it's still fiction. When my friend and I would play co-op in Halo
: 4, we made non-stop jokes about the stuff that doesn't fly in the real
: world--"Just got folded in half against a wall, I'm cool."

: "Crashed a Phantom. No seatbelt. Walkin' it off."

: "Didact and the Composer just fucking fried me and Tillson and all the
: scientists. I'm a'ight--I didn't even need The Librarian's help, I'm
: good."

: But yeah man, it's just a story.

To play Devil's advocate, the Earth's atmosphere is about 100km up but in Halo 3, the Master Chief was estimated to have fallen only about 2km, so he was well, well within burn-up range.

But to the original point, Six was equipped with a "re-entry pack" which I'm certain 26th century engineers designed to be able to withstand and safely navigate a re-entry. To someone's point above too, the battle above Reach was likely geostationary, not whipping around the planet. We'd have seen the planet's aspect change during our mission if the corvette was not geostationary.