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It's more of an aircraft when there's air around, be it only a very small quantity :)

Can't be much at 250km though.



Enough to cause some drag, and because of that it needed to have an aerodynamic shape and a continuously operating ion engine to avoid orbital decay because of that drag. But not enough air to actually produce lift, so no wings, just fins for stabilization. So the sleek shape which led to it being perceived as beautiful was actually technically motivated. To me it looks more like a rocket than an aircraft TBH...


The weight of the spacecraft in orbit is also extremely small, so the lift produced from the free flow hitting the surface at an angle is non-negligible. But as all weight is created by the drag from the same flow, reducing the cross-section is more beneficial. That's why it was designed to match the perfect orbital velocity at zero AoA, instead of using the lift.




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