Why do astronauts float in space?
Forever Falling
Why do astronauts float in space?
You've seen the videos: astronauts tumbling through their space station like underwater acrobats, hair standing up in wild halos, tools drifting past their faces. They're floating. But here's the thing — gravity hasn't disappeared. Earth is still pulling on them with almost the same strength as it pulls on you right now.
Gravity's grip weakens with distance, but not by much. The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles up — roughly the distance from New York to Washington D.C. If you drove that far, you'd still feel totally normal weight. At ISS altitude, Earth's gravity is still 90% as strong as on the ground.
