Earth movement through space.

[styley]

Is it true that the earth is hurtling through space all the time and if so why does it not leave spaceships stuck in the middle of nowhere when they have left the atmosphere.

[wildwood]

It appears that way because it revolves around the sun. It is actually hurtling through nothing, space is a vacuum and offers no resistance.
A spaceship leaving the Earth's atmosphere is already going at a great rate of knots. Once it is in space no major fuel is used to keep it going and the expensive tanks that hold the fuel for launching are usually dropped before the ship leaves the atmosphere completely so they can be recovered. Main ship tanks are used to make adjustments to its speed and direction with adjustable jets bursts.
As there is no resistance very little fuel is needed to make these adjustments and keep it going for a long time.

Although we say there is no resistance in space as a vacuum, this is not true in the strictest sense. The sun produces a tremendous gravitational force that keeps even Pluto in its orbit. This also affects spaceships and any celestial body. This also causes the danger to spacewalkers outside of their ship (to do repairs etc) - if not attached to the ship with a secure line the difference in gravitational pull between a human and a spaceship will soon see the two separate from each other.

[Loosehead]

The Earth and everything in orbit is going around the sun at approx 60000mph. All speed is relative and when an object goes up it is already going at 60000 around the sun it is also being attracted into orbit, ie freefall, by Earth Gravity. The whole system, including the moon is dragged along together.

[dundurn]

There is one time when all this rushing around comes in handy. If you are trying to lauunch a spacecraft into earth orbit you have to get it up to around 17500 mph. If you launch it from the North Pole it's a bit like doing a standing jump, the engines and the fuel on board have to give it every bit of that orbital velocity. If you can launch from the equator, however, the rocket it and everything else on the equator is already going at just over 1000mph so you 'only' have to add in another 16500 from your own resources. For this reason spacecraft are launched from as close to the equator as possible and in an easterly direction. That's why the USA chose Florida as its launch site and why the European Union uses Kourou in French Guyana to launch its Ariane rockets. Weather and spy satellites that fly over the poles don't get this free ride so they can be launched from anywhere.

[styley]

Thanks, interesting.