It's not that complicated a problem.

Neither is it any kind of an important problem.

"Water ejected at the nosecone" would literally be exploding in the local environment, as measured by joules released per pound of high explosive versus joules absorbed by the water ejected. This explosion would create a back pressure wave against the spaceship, that will directly impact its surface. Because that wave's speed is higher than the speed of sound in stainless steel, the structures made of stainless will disintegrate.

It's not steam as you are thinking of it.

I was fortunate one time to see the plasma trail of a shuttle re entry, that was a white column across the sky about the size of the Moon east to west. It dissipated within a minute or two. That trail was disassociated atoms from the heat of re entry....