[lokopodium]

That's not actually true, Soyuz re-enter on a very shallow profile, shedding a lot of speed over a lot of time with relatively low G. Additionally, Soyuz is a lifting body, which makes the profile even shallower.

Mercury had 8g deceleration on orbital reentry vs 11-12g on suborbital one.

[mannykannot]

I was surprised to see a higher deceleration on suborbital flights - is that due to a flatter trajectory for the return from orbit?