• Question: What is the top speed of the NASA space shuttle?

    Asked by AVC to Rachel, David on 12 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Good Q.

      It depends on when you are measuring it. When its leaving the Earth or when it’s returning.

      So when the space shuttle is on the Earth it needs a huge force to get it off the ground and out of the Earth’s atmosphere, that’s why it’s strapped to a rocket that produces enough ‘thrust’. The rocket needs to travel at 7 miles per second (or 25,000 mph) to get out of the Earths atmosphere! This is known as hypersonic because its way faster than the speed of sound.

      When the shuttle returns to Earth it travels a little slower, but still really fast at around 18,000 mph. It also get’s really hot – up to 2500 degrees. Toasty!

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