Why is there a velocity associated with escaping from earth’s atmosphere? If an object were to fly from the surface of the planet at 1 m/s without any change in acceleration would it not eventually end up in space?
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If something were to fly from the surface of the planet at 1 m/s then gravity would pull it back and have it land again in a fraction of a second. If you get something to fly faster from the surface it might take more time but it will still fall down again. You need to get above the atmosphere and then reach orbital velocities to prevent it from falling down to the planet under the force of gravity. But it will still not escape gravity. To get something far away from the planet you need to get in flying away so fast that no matter how long gravity will not be able to pull it back. That is escape velocity.
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