How fast does a space shuttle travel?
VOICE TWO: The easy answer is: Much faster than you might think. The space shuttles are launched into what is called low Earth orbit. Low Earth orbit is about five-hundred-twenty-eight kilometers above sea level. This means that the space shuttle is not beyond the reach of Earth’s pull of gravity. So to remain in low orbit, the shuttle must reach a speed of about twenty-eight-thousand kilometers per hour. It may be easier to understand if I explain it like this. Imagine that you tie a ball on the end of a string and then move it quickly around in a circle over your head. The ball will stay up in the air if you make it move fast enough. If you stop, the ball will fall. The same will happen to the space shuttle. It will fall to Earth if it does not go fast enough to balance the pull of gravity. In fact when the crew of the shuttle wants to return to Earth, they make the big spacecraft slow down. Gravity begins to pull it back to Earth. NowI have a question for you. How much fuel does a s
