How do satellites stay in orbit?
Falling With Style
How do satellites stay in orbit?
Right now, thousands of satellites are zooming around Earth, never touching the ground, never falling down. How do they stay up there without engines running all the time, without strings holding them, without anything pushing them along? It seems impossible — like throwing a ball so hard it never lands.
Here's the secret: satellites ARE falling. They're falling toward Earth every single second. But they're also moving forward so fast — about 17,000 miles per hour — that as they fall, Earth's curved surface falls away beneath them at exactly the same rate. They fall around the planet instead of into it.
