If someone were to fire a gun in space, would the bullet travel normally?
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Yes, It wouldn’t be slowed down at all by air resistance or similar and not be affected by the usual aerodynamic considerations we have here on earth, but otherwise it would travel just fine.
In fact it would fly just the tiniest bit faster than it ever would on earth, since there is no air in the way inside the barrel as it gets shot. (at least in reference to the gun itself.)
Once fired it would simply keep going with no air slowing it down.
It would be subject to the normal orbital dynamics of things in space, but other than that it would simply keep going.
Firing a gun in space is pretty normal since bullets have their own oxidizer to burn and don’t need any air can fire in the vacuum of space and even underwater.
If you fire a gun too much in space you may run into overheating problems because there is no air to take heat away from the gun. You may also encounter weird effects where any grease or oil will evaporate away in vacuum and moving metal parts may get vacuum welded together if they are in contact long enough.
But otherwise the gun will fire just fine.
The shooter on the other hand will become acquainted with newtons. The recoil will be problem and push the shooter back and unless the gun was lined up with their center of mass cause them to spin and tumble.
The bullet itself will become just another object that orbits whatever the shooter was orbiting when he fired, just on a slightly different orbit. (The speed of the bullet will usually not be enough to deorbit it or push it up to escape velocity.)
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