NASA tells us that satellites like the ISS have not escaped gravity, they still weigh 90% of what they weigh on earth. They stay in orbit by going so fast that they go around the curve of the earth faster than gravity can pull them to the earth. So they are in a state of perpetual free fall.
The problem with this is it supposes that gravity is pulling down on a flat plane and exerting no pull against the momentum of the satellite.
Gravity would be constantly adjusting and pulling back to the center of the mass. As soon as you went forward a foot, the angle of pull would adjust and it would go AGAINST your forward momentum (by a slight degree). There is no way you could maintain your altitude without going against gravity’s pull.
If you simply went forward, you would spiral around the globe descending at the constant rate of acceleration of gravity. You would hit the ground in just a few minutes. The only way to not lose altitude is to break the parallel level of gravity’s pull, which would allow you to relatively remain at the same height, but at the cost of expending your forward momentum, as gravity would pull against it the moment you crossed the parallel.
Up till now NASA only accounts for the miniscule air friction, which they say slowly degrades the orbit, but they don’t account for this pull of gravity which would nearly instantly degrade the orbit. You would need to exert as much energy/fuel as any plane that flies in order to maintain orbit with a satellite.
Their ridiculous model relies on perpetual motion where you use the acceleration created by gravity to overcome the pull of gravity and maintain constant altitude. It is impossible to do this.
The moment the satellite is not parallel to the pull of gravity, the complete weight of the satellite (419,600 kg in the case of ISS) needs to be lifted. Even accepting that gravity only exerts 90% as much pull at that distance, still you need to be able to lift 375,000 kg, constantly, as the satellite needs to constantly break the parallel to maintain altitude against the pull of gravity which always pulls back to the center of the globe, not downwards on a flat plane.
Gravity functions as a ring around the globe earth. If a satellite stays on that ring, it has not fallen, nor has it followed the pull of gravity. The pull of gravity cannot cause an object to remain on the ring of gravity’s pull without it losing altitude. If It did, then the net effect of gravity would be to pull things in a circular path on a ring around the earth, which we know to be false. Gravity pulls to the center of mass.
