What is the max speed of a space shuttle?
about 17,500 miles per hour
What is its altitude? How much fuel does it use? A. Like any other object in low-Earth orbit, a Space Shuttle must reach speeds of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) to remain in orbit.
What travels at 17000 miles an hour?
Satellites in low-Earth orbit, or LEO, stay within 500 miles (800 kilometers) and travel extremely fast—17,000 miles an hour (27,400 kilometers an hour) or more—to keep from being drawn back into Earth’s atmosphere.
Why does the space shuttle have to go so fast?
To skim the Earth’s atmosphere in orbit, your spacecraft has to travel at least as fast as 7.8 km / second, or about 17,500 mph. If you slow down by a tiny amount below that speed, even by just a few hundred miles per hour, as you skim the atmosphere, you will fall too far towards Earth before you complete your orbit.
How many miles per hour did the rocket go?
How fast can conventional rockets go?
| Flight Plan | speed required |
|---|---|
| Earth to LEO (low Earth orbit) | 17,000 mph |
| Earth to Earth escape | 24,200 mph |
| Earth to lunar orbit | 25,700 mph |
| Earth to GEO (geosynchronous Earth orbit) | 26,400 mph |
How fast does a space shuttle travel to Mars?
Cruise. The cruise phase begins after the spacecraft separates from the rocket, soon after launch. The spacecraft departs Earth at a speed of about 24,600 mph (about 39,600 kph). The trip to Mars will take about seven months and about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers).
Why was space shuttle discontinued?
All of these factors — high costs, slow turnaround, few customers, and a vehicle (and agency) that had major safety problems — combined to make the Bush administration realize it was time for the Space Shuttle Program to retire.