Numerical analyses were performed to determine the effect of specific impacts on a reentry vehicle. The objective of these analyses was to determine those combinations of environment levels and failure pathways which have some potential of leading to exposure of internal regions of a reentry vehicle. The methodologies employed in the study utilized existing structural finite element modeling techniques. The results of these analyses have been enumerated for rigid rail and probe impacts to specific locations on the reentry vehicle. Excellent agreement was obtained between the analyses and applicable full scale tests
