how did we first know that there’s is no gravity in space before we sent the very first satellite? And that we only needed a limited amount of fuel to propel the rocket out of earth’s atmosphere?

Question

Were there conditions created on earth to see how space would be like? What was the theory based on if an experiment was conducted? Or what’s it literally just – let’s just send it up and see what happens to it?

In: Physics

Answer 1

There is gravity in space. It’s just that things that are orbiting are in constant free fall, but have sufficient speed to keep “missing the earth” or orbiting. If you are in freefall it feels essentially the same as zero gravity.