Compared to the distance to the Moon, how far away is the space shuttle(when in space) from the Earth?

Question

a) very close to the earth
b) about half way to the moon
c) very close to the moon
d) about twice as far as the Moon

Answer 1

A - The shuttle orbits at an altitude of around 200 miles or so. The moon is hundreds of thousands of miles away.

Answer 2

The Moon is about 250,000 miles away.

The Space Shuttle generally orbits 200 to 400 miles above Earth. I think the maximum altitude has actually been more like 380 or 390 miles.

So, the Moon is 625 to 1000 times further away from Earth than the shuttle.

Convert this to inches, and approximate the Moon to be about 250 inches (21 feet) away. Using the same scale, the shuttle gets no further than .4 inches away (less than 1/2 an inch).

a) very close to the Earth

Answer 3

It is a good question because it highlights the achievement of Apollo in 1969-72.

I think most people who have little grasp of the space program seem to wonder why shuttles don’t go to the moon, not realising in their ignorance that it is different strokes for different players.

The shuttle is basically an aircraft that is injected into orbit via a large rocket, It does not go into space on its own power. So, it has no way of flying anywhere in space short of some minor manouevering. To re-enter it just fires retros to slow its orbital speed, and gravity takes it all the way down, and then it lands just like any other aircraft, albeit at a faster speed, requiring a longer runway.

To go to the moon, you need something of a different order – a Saturn V rocket, which had about 10 times the power of the launch rocket for the shuttles, and had the extra capacity required to escape Earth’s gravity and inject the lunar craft into trans-lunar orbit.

The Saturn V was mothballed after the cancellation of Apollo in 1972. That is why we have not been back to the moon. There is not a rocket available at the moment with the power and capacity to launch a manned probe beyond Earth’s orbit.

Answer 4

Answer A.

The Space Shuttle moves from distances around 125 miles above the Earth down to the surface of the Earth. The Moon is roughly 250,000 Miles from Earth.

Answer 5

The Shuttle doesn't really fly very high, just outside the atmosphere. It goes about 125 miles up. The moon is 237,000 miles, on average.

Many of the satellites the shuttle carries into space have to go a lot higher. They usually have small rockets to take them the rest of the way. The first 125 mi. are the hardest, escaping earth's gravity and the atmosphere.

Answer 6

A is the answer. The shuttle can go up about 350 miles. It's about 238,400 miles to the moon, making the Shuttle's maximum orbit about 1000 times less than the moons.

Answer 7

Very close to the earth
Now the shuttle only goes to the space station which is about 225 miles up.

Later it will go to the Hubble Telescope which is about 400 miles high.

Answer 8

Wow,these are interesting questions.Keep them coming.I'd love to answer them.a) is the correct answer.