[beerandt]

That meteor equation isn't the right one to use. It's based on assumptions that don't apply here. It has to be re-derived, at a minimum, if it can even be repurposed.

Any dt equation like that should have some value of X_final-X_initial for any constants that change.

For rho, he plugs in rho_initial for rho_final. And rho_initial in space is zero, so it likely got dropped from the equation when it was derived.

That said, if it even survived the initial xray ablation, yeah, it probably burnt up before reaching space, or at least slowed down enough that it came back down.