# Orbital Mechanics

Apply Newton's laws to explain orbital motion: why orbit is continuously falling sideways rather than floating; how a gravity assist (slingshot manoeuvre) transfers momentum from a planet to a spacecraft; and why rockets need to reach a specific speed to enter orbit — with a conceptual (not algebraic) treatment of the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation

Builds on: Universal Gravitation (soft, https://ai.page/c/universal-gravitation/en.md), Gravity Pulls Things Down (hard, https://ai.page/c/gravity-pulls-things-down/en.md)

Concept id: orbital-mechanics. Subject: science. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

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