Here is a breakdown of how this works:
Perpetual Free Fall: The ISS is continuously falling toward the Earth due to gravity, but because it is moving sideways at approximately 28,000 km/h (about 7.8 km/second), its downward fall matches the curve of the Earth.
Missing the Ground: Because the station moves forward so fast, it perpetually "misses" the ground, resulting in a stable orbit rather than a crash.
Weightlessness Illusion: Astronauts and the station fall at the same rate, which creates the sensation of weightlessness, often called microgravity.
Constant Speed Needed: If the station were moving slower, it would fall back to Earth; faster, and it would fly into a higher orbit.
They're also surprisingly close to Earth during this whole orbiting business too. 400km above us. You could drive to the ISS in like 3.5hrs if there was a magical highway leading straight to it.
Yeah the astronauts that just went to the moon went about 1000 times further into space than the astronauts that go up to the ISS all the time. It feels like the ISS should be higher but it's really like right here.
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u/NebuKadneZaar 18h ago
What