Answer to Question #137117 in Organic Chemistry for Tatiana

Question

Explain how a sub-orbital is different than an orbital.

Answer 1

Orbital and suborbital flight are common terms in the spaceflight industry that sound very similar, but they mean different things. 

The main difference between orbital and suborbital flight is the speed at which a vehicle is traveling. An orbital spacecraft must achieve what is known as orbital velocity, whereas a suborbital rocket flies at a speed below that. 

Orbital velocity is the speed that an object must maintain to remain in orbit around a planet. A good way to picture this is to imagine a ball being thrown at ground level — at a normal throwing speed, the ball travels in an arc through the air before hitting the ground. But say you were to put a little rocket on the ball that made it travel so fast that its arc shape would perfectly match the curvature of the Earth. At that point, the ball would have achieved orbit and would fly at a consistent height above our planet.