The ozone layer has nothing to do with any interaction whatsoever, save the interactions already associated with the atmosphere, since the ozone layer is part of it.
With no friction (i.e. air completely removed), there would be nothing bleeding away the kinetic energy from the Mach 25 descent speed, and the shuttle would crash to the Earth in a spectacular fireball right on top of Washington.
The laws of physics are not easily broken. If one has excess energy one wants to get rid of, converting it into heat is easiest. There's not much else one can do.
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So... there's not enough rocketpower to slow down the shuttle to a steady halt above some place on earth? ..it kinda sucks If I think about the future of space aviation.. many crashes will occur while soaring through the atmosphere.