How many minutes does it take to reach space?

Thank you for your enquiry.

You asked how many minutes it takes to reach space. I assume you mean how long it would take to reach outer space on a space shuttle.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a space shuttle travels at a speed of approximately 5 miles per second (8.04 km) and 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 km/h). The distance between Earth's surface and space is 100 km, hence it would take a space shuttle only 12 seconds to reach space.

If you are interested to read more about spaceflight, you may wish to check out these resources:

Print
Title: Space and spaceflight / written by Harry Ford and Kay Barnham.
Author: Ford, Harry.
Publisher: London : Puffin Books, 1995.
Call no.: J 523 FOR

Title: Voyage through space / Peter Grego.
Author: Grego, Peter.
Publisher: London : QED, 2007.
Call no.: J 629.4 GRE

Title: Can we travel to the stars? : space flight and space exploration / Andrew Solway.
Author: Solway, Andrew.
Publisher: Oxford : Heinemann Library, 2006.
Call no.: J 629.4 SOL

Title: Journey into space / by Gerry Bailey ; illustrated by Steve Boulter and Jan Smith.
Author: Bailey, Gerry.
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, 2005.
Call no.: J 629.4 BAI

Title: The astronaut's survival guide / E. Young.
Author: Young, Emma.
Publisher: London : Puffin, 2004.
Call no.: J 629.45 YOU

The availability of these titles can be checked via our online catalogue at www.pl.sg.


Online
Spaceflight, last accessed from Wikipedia on 30 May 08 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight
NASA Human Space Flight, last accessed from NASA on 30 May 08 at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Spaceflight Now, last accessed on 30 May 08 at http://spaceflightnow.com

We hope that the above has been useful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further assistance.

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