I am. outraged at the university's treatment of a retired professor.. Mark of Excellence The matter of the practical benefits of emeritus status, however, is amoot point at many institutions, especially community colleges, thatlack resources to share with retired faculty members.
Dear publish1000-ga; You posed a great question. The answer is really much simpler than it first appears. The US Space Shuttle uses a rocket propulsion system to get into its final orbit in its approach to Earth. Other than that the Shuttle is essentially falling and during re-entry the aircraft is actually a glider. The reentry speed is largely dictated by the Earth gravitational pull and given the physics of such a reentry the speed is typically approximately 25,405 feet per second (17,322 statute miles per hour).
The Space Station hasn't escaped Earth's gravity at all; it's experiencing about 90% the pull that we feel on the surface. To avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast. The speed you need to stay in orbit is about 8 kilometers per second.[4]It's a little less if you're in the higher region of low Earth orbit. Only a fraction of a rocket's energy is used to lift up out of the atmosphere; the vast majority of it is used to gain orbital (sideways) speed.ow fast is 8 km/s, anyway? I think the reason for a lot of confusion about these issues is that when astronauts are in orbit, it doesn't seem like they're moving that fast; they look like they're drifting slowly over a blue marble. But 8 km/s is blisteringly fast.