noun

• (nautical) The part of a vessel abaft midships.
  "After the diagonals are drawn in the plane of the projection, the ribbands may be laid down in the horizontal plane, and from thence all the other frames may be laid down in the plane of projection, in the very same manner that the horizontal ribbands and the frames for the afterbody were laid down."
• (astronomy) A companion body that trails a satellite or spacecraft.
• (astronautics) A section or piece of a launch vehicle, rocket, or spacecraft that enters the atmosphere unprotected behind the nose cone or other body that is protected for entry.
  "After two minutes of aerodynamic breaking — now some 400 kilometres below the entry interface, and with the probe having slowed to the speed of sound — a mortar was programmed to deploy the small drogue into the slipstream, and once the drogue had slowed the probe to 430 kilometres per hour the afterbody shield was to be released so that the 2.5-metre wide dacron main parachute could be deployed."