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Earth's atmosphere photographed from the International Space Station.The orange and green line of airglow is at roughly the altitude of the Kármán line. [1]The Kármán line (or von Kármán line / v ɒ n ˈ k ɑːr m ɑː n /) [2] is a conventional definition of the edge of space.
Transatmospheric orbit (TAO): geocentric orbits with an apogee above 100 km and perigee that intersects with the defined atmosphere. [4] Very low Earth orbit (VLEO) is defined as altitudes between approximately 100 - 450 km above Earth’s surface. [5] [6] Low Earth orbit (LEO): geocentric orbits with altitudes below 2,000 km (1,200 mi). [7]
Alan Eustace set the current world record for highest and longest-distance free fall jump in 2014 when he jumped from 135,898 feet (41.422 km). [2] However, Joseph Kittinger still holds the record for longest-duration free fall, at 4 minutes and 36 seconds, which he accomplished during his 1960 jump from 102,800 feet (31.3 km).
[1] [2] Whether an object is visible depends significantly on the height above sea level from where it is observed. The Kármán line , at 100 kilometres (62 mi), is accepted by the World Air Sports Federation , an international standard-setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics , as the boundary between the Earth's ...
Vostok 6, launched by the Soviet Union on 16 June 1963, carrying Valentina Tereshkova, was the first successful spaceflight by a woman to reach Earth orbit. Crew Dragon Demo-2, launched by SpaceX and the United States on 30 May 2020, was the first successful human spaceflight by a private company to reach Earth orbit.
For Earth, atmospheric entry occurs by convention at the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles; 54 nautical miles) above the surface, while at Venus atmospheric entry occurs at 250 km (160 mi; 130 nmi) and at Mars atmospheric entry at about 80 km (50 mi; 43 nmi).
A wide variety of sources [5] [6] [7] define LEO in terms of altitude.The altitude of an object in an elliptic orbit can vary significantly along the orbit. Even for circular orbits, the altitude above ground can vary by as much as 30 km (19 mi) (especially for polar orbits) due to the oblateness of Earth's spheroid figure and local topography.
Earth's rotation period relative to the fixed stars, called its stellar day by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), is 86,164.0989 seconds of mean solar time , or 23 h 56 m 4.0989 s. [2] [n 10] Earth's rotation period relative to the precessing or moving mean March equinox (when the Sun is at 90° on the ...