I understand why astronauts orbiting the earth are weightless since they are in constant freefall. But why are the astronauts who went to the moon weightless?
I imagine that as you accelerate away from the earth towards the moon, you are no longer falling but are instead climbing. Intuitively, I think that this would give you some kind of gravity. Coming back I would think that you are constantly falling towards the earth, so I understand how the return journey would be weightless.
In: Physics
They were still in orbit around the earth (freefall), it was just a highly elongated orbit. More like a comet that goes way out into space then comes near the sun. They had to fire their boosters again to get into orbit around the moon.
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