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Earth's gravitational attraction keeps changing the direction of its movement continuously. This keeps orbits near Earth - such as the ISS - in an elliptical orbit.

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Q: Why doesn't the ISS travel in a straight line away from the Earth?
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How would the motion of the moon change if there were no centripedial force acting on it?

If there were no centripetal force acting on the moon, it would move in a straight line at a constant velocity tangent to its orbit. This would cause it to travel in a straight path away from its current orbit, eventually moving away from Earth instead of staying in a stable orbit.


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If you travel to the moon at a speed of 1500 mph how many days will the trip take?

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The Earth's atmosphere moves right along with the Earth. If it didn't, then anybody standing on the equator would be standing in a 1,000 mph wind !