The space shuttle is descending through the earths atmosphere. How is the force of gravity affected?
Gravitational force increases with descent but it is not valid to think that it doesn’t exist simply because the astronauts appear weightless in *freefall*. If there was no gravity the shuttle would not remain in orbit. It is gravity that keeps the shuttle (and the Moon) circling the Earth. There is not much difference between the actual strength of gravity 200 miles or so up and the surface or our world when measured as a specific acceleration rate of 32 ft/sec. I do not know the exact reduction but it is still a significant percentage of 32 ft/sec. The shuttle appears weightless because in *freefall* the vessel is falling around the Earth in an orbit that roughly equals gravitational acceleration and *zeros* out. You can even experience a similar moment of this on the surface when an elevator falls so fast that you feel lighter. So technically it remains *almost constant* but is diminished (or increased on approach) in accord with Newton’s inverse square law for the reduction of grav
