Hypersonic heating is really weird. We only have data going to about mach 17 (the HTV-2 was the fastest solidly atmospheric vehicle I found) but as we go from subsonic, to supersonic, to hypersonic regimes air becomes pretty much incompressible, and forms a really solid shockwave in front of a fast-moving object. Air is a pretty good thermal insulator, so for very fast, blunt objects they actually heat much slower than you might expect.
Tl;Dr it absolutely vaporized, but it likely lasted longer than you might expect.
logos@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is the origin apparently.
This last question was more of a shout. Bill liked to have a direct answer to each one of his questions. RRB: “Six times the escape velocity from the earth.”