• Question: how far is it to space and how long does it take to get out of the earth atmosphere?

    Asked by 287nch23 to Simon, Julia, Delma, Andrew, Alex on 13 Dec 2015. This question was also asked by yehscience123.
    • Photo: Andrew Winnard

      Andrew Winnard answered on 13 Dec 2015:

      Earth’s atmosphere is about 300 miles (480 kilometers) thick, but most of it is within 10 miles (16 km) the surface. That is why you struggle to breath if you climb to the top of a mountain because the air gets thinner the higher you go.

      In a space rocket you can get out of the atmosphere in about 5-10minutes! This is because you have go at least 25,020 mph to get into orbit 🙂 You go at 70mph when you drive down the motorway (when its not jammed 😛 ) so you see that launching to space means going a lot faster!

      I have made a video for you that explains Tim’s launch! You can see the whole launch process and how long it takes to reach space in the video

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