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The speed in orbit, (and the period of the orbit) depends on only the size of the orbit.

The first successful artificial satellites, including the Sputniks and the manned satellites carrying Gagarin and Glenn, were in orbits barely high enough to avoid being brought down immediately by atmospheric drag. Their orbital periods were all about 90 minutes.

With a radius of roughly 4000 miles (earth's radius plus a little extra for orbital altitude), the circumference is (2 pi R) = 26,000 miles.

The speed would have been (26,000 / 90) = about 289 miles per minute = 4.8 miles per second That's about 7.5 times the moon's orbital velocity.

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16y ago

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