why when the international space station is only 250miles away does it take at least 4 hours to get there?

Question

I’m going to be very disappointed if the rockets top out at 65mph.

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

Meeting up with a craft in orbit isn’t like going straight to a destination. You need your own orbit and your target’s orbit to intersect at just the right spot so that you both get there at the same time. Sometimes that involves waiting in a ”parking” orbit until you get that perfect alignment. The result is that you might have to go around the planet a couple of times before you get there.