Well, you might wanna try a combo of the following:

- Geometry wrapped around your entry vehicle mapped with an animated map of flames with greater transparency towards the top, aiming upwards (towards opposite entry vector direction) with keyed and re-mappedRGB values that go from blue to white, to blue again, then yellow, to arange, then reveal the flame map original colors, to a fade.

- all the while, have some sparks and small subtle "plasma" debris/pieces shooting off in the flame direction.

- What TRULY sells re-entry shots is WELL TIMED use of camera shake. That, along with a little full-scene glow, and depth of field blur.
So use that to your advantage for added realism

Good luck!