Why Are Astronauts Weightless?

Veritasium
Contributed By
Veritasium
Resource Type
Instructional Resource
Keywords
weightlessness weightless astronauts space station gravity space gravity in space zero g 0g veritasium
Subjects
Science
Related Resources

Why Are Astronauts Weightless?

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/team/default.htm

I have been working with Catalyst on ABC1 to bring some Veritasium to Australian TV. In this segment I ask why astronauts in the space station are weightless. The most common answer is because there is no gravity in space. But of course there is gravity in space, especially where the space station is located (only about 400km from Earth's surface). So astronauts still experience a gravitational pull - it's just that they and the space station are in free fall so they are accelerating together towards the Earth. The space station doesn't crash into the Earth because of its orbital velocity - it's going 28,000 km/h so as it falls, the Earth curves away from it.

Publisher
Veritasium

Unfortunately, we were unable to load the necessary assets to access this site.
Try reloading the page to verify your network is still working.

If the problem persists, please verify that https://cdn.ascendlx.com/ is not blocked by your network firewall. You may need to reach out to your agency's Network/IT support staff to get access.

For any questions or further assistance please contact us at help@onelearningcommunity.com