“There is no gravity in space”

It's a common visual, astronauts gracefully floating inside their spacecraft, which leads many to believe there's no gravity in space. However, this idea is a widespread misconception. Gravity is a fundamental force that exists throughout the universe, responsible for holding planets in orbit around stars and stars within galaxies. Even at the altitude of the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits Earth at about 200 to 250 miles high, Earth's gravity is still quite strong—approximately 90% of what we experience on the surface.

Astronauts appear weightless not because gravity is absent, but because they are in a continuous state of freefall around Earth. The ISS, along with everything inside it, including the astronauts, is constantly falling towards our planet. However, it's also moving sideways at an incredible speed, roughly 17,500 miles per hour, which is fast enough that as it falls, the Earth's surface curves away beneath it. This balance between its forward motion and the pull of gravity keeps it in orbit, essentially causing it to "miss" the Earth continuously. This creates the sensation of weightlessness, or microgravity, where there's no solid surface to stop the fall, and everything falls together at the same rate.

The misconception likely stems from the visual evidence of astronauts floating and the common use of terms like "zero gravity" in popular culture, which are technically inaccurate. People often equate the sensation of weightlessness with a complete absence of gravitational pull. In reality, the "weightless" feeling is the same sensation one would experience during a brief moment of freefall on Earth, like at the top of a roller coaster drop. This feeling of not being pushed against a surface is what we perceive as weightlessness, even though gravity is still very much at play.