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Are there examples of items being brought to or returned to Earth that were damaged in the re-entry process? For example, lunar samples during Apollo, or something being returned in the Shuttle payload bay?

Clarification: I'm looking for a re-entry where the vehicle and any crew returned intact; just the payload was damaged. Thus, the loss of Columbia doesn't count.

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DrSheldon
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    The obvious answer is STS-107's cargo but I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for. – Organic Marble Jul 04 '19 at 04:08
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    @OrganicMarble: Good point, I will add a clarification. – DrSheldon Jul 04 '19 at 04:15
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    Would you count a hard but not disintegrating landing of s spacecraft? I do not know if any such cases exists but are we limited to cases where the spacecraft decent went as planned? – lijat Jul 04 '19 at 06:35
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    Does the Genesis sample return count? – amI Jul 04 '19 at 07:00
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    @lijat: Yes. Considering that someone returning cargo probably wants it in good condition, I'd say damage to cargo would require something going wrong. It might be failing to secure the payload, turbulence, a rough landing, or the spacecraft rolling over. But a complete failure of the vehicle is outside the scope of this question, and is already covered in other questions. – DrSheldon Jul 04 '19 at 08:15
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    @amI: Unmanned missions (e.g. sample return, spy film) are okay, but if there are multiple answers, I would accept a manned mission (e.g. Apollo, Shuttle, Soyuz) over an unmanned mission. – DrSheldon Jul 04 '19 at 08:21
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    I don't have a reference for this but friends of mine who've done bio-science research on the ISS say that samples they get returned are often damaged to the point of being useless. This has become a big problem since the shuttle retired, which could provide relatively low-shock entry and landing compared to the Soyuz and Dragon. – PeteBlackerThe3rd Jul 04 '19 at 13:27
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    Shuttle’s deceleration was not that much, well less than 2Gs if I recall correctly. Also, there is much less vibrations during entry than during the launch. – busdriver Jul 04 '19 at 17:22

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