I’m going to be very disappointed if the rockets top out at 65mph.
In: Planetary Science
Because if you sent a rocket straight at it, you’re not going to dock with the ISS, you’ve essentially just fired a missile at it.
[You can watch a video of the docking procedure.](https://www.youtube.com/live/3FaUK7VAljc?si=4Xvh3MjIKaE8ggJw&t=4738) It’s pretty delicate. You need to match its speed exactly so you can gently dock without bumping into anything and breaking something.
So you need to get into orbit, which requires more elaborate maneuvres, you can’t go straight there.
It wouldn’t take 4 hours to get there if getting there was all that mattered. But if you’re going to the ISS you probably want to stay there, which means you have to go pretty fast or you’ll fall straight down again. Gravity at the altitude of the ISS is still 99% as strong as it is on the surface, if you’re not going fast enough you’ll fall straight back down to Earth.
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