The space exploration has been increasing in the last decades and with it the study on the related phenomena. Particularly, when a space vehicle is in its reentry to the atmosphere, it experiences hypersonic velocities and extremely high aerodynamic and thermal loads. Many efforts have been dedicated to find solutions to protect the integrity of the spacecraft during the reentry. One of the solutions is to apply magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) as a thermal protection mechanism. The interaction of magnetic field applied to the space vehicle with the flow velocity generates electric current which in turns interacts with the magnetic field creating an electromagnetic force (Lorentz force). This force will push the shock waves formed in front to the vehicle upstream, causing an increment of the shock layer. Consequently, a decrease in the temperature gradient with a reduction of the surface heat flux, is achieved. In this paper, the impact of the surface catalycity in the MHD interaction and consequent effect on the thermal protection system will be analysed. For this purpose, a thermochemical non-equilibrium weakly ionized, electrically conductive, air plasma flow around an axisymmetric blunt body with an imposed dipole magnetic field is studied. A reliable numerical model, previously validated by the authors, using a density-based algorithm in the OpenFOAM framework is here employed. Furthermore, the numerical capabilities of the present model have been developed and validated for the study of non-equilibrium Navier-Sokes coupled with the MHD equations by employing the low magnetic Reynolds number approximation. After an estimation of the discretization uncertainties by using the Richardson extrapolation method and Roache’s Grid Convergence Index, the results are obtained by using a sufficient independent grid. The influence of the surface catalytic condition on the MHD thermal protection mechanism is then discussed and the relevant conclusions on flow behaviour are taken, particularly related to the shock standoff distance and the surface heat flux.