What is an Escape Velocity?

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Feb 14, 2025

Escape velocity is defined as the speed at which an object travels to break free from the planets or the celestial body’s gravitational force without undergoing any further acceleration.

The escape velocity is a crucial parameter to consider when a spacecraft has to be launched into outer space. It is of utmost importance that the velocity attained by the spacecraft must be higher than the escape velocity so that the rocket doesn’t fall back to earth.

As observed, the escape velocity of Earth is 11.2 km/s or 40,270 kmph.

Similarly, escape velocities of other planets or celestial bodies can be calculated.

Celestial Body

Escape Velocity

Sun

618 km/s

Mercury

4.25 km/s

Venus

10.36 km/s

Earth

11.2 km/s

Mars

5.02 km/s

Jupiter

59.5 km/s

Saturn

35.46 km/s

Uranus

21.28 km/s

Neptune

23.44 km/s

Moon

2.38 km/s

Space Missions - A list of all Space Missions

esa

Name Date
Altius 01 May, 2025
Hera 01 Oct, 2024
Arctic Weather Satellite 01 Jun, 2024
EarthCARE 29 May, 2024
Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS) 01 Mar, 2024
MTG Series 13 Dec, 2022
Eutelsat Quantum 30 Jul, 2021
Sentinel 6 21 Nov, 2020
OPS-SAT 18 Dec, 2019
Cheops 18 Dec, 2019

isro

Name Date
INSAT-3DS 17 Feb, 2024
XPoSat 01 Jan, 2024
Aditya-L1 02 Sep, 2023
DS-SAR 30 Jul, 2023
Chandrayaan-3 14 Jul, 2023
NVS-01 29 May, 2023
TeLEOS-2 22 Apr, 2023
OneWeb India-2 26 Mar, 2023
EOS-07 10 Feb, 2023
EOS-06 26 Nov, 2022

jaxa

Name Date
VEP-4 17 Feb, 2024
TIRSAT 17 Feb, 2024
CE-SAT 1E 17 Feb, 2024
XRISM 07 Sep, 2023
SLIM 07 Sep, 2023
ALOS-3 07 Mar, 2023
ISTD-3 07 Oct, 2022
JDRS 1 29 Nov, 2020
HTV9 21 May, 2020
IGS-Optical 7 09 Feb, 2020

nasa

Name Date
NEO Surveyor 01 Jun, 2028
Libera 01 Dec, 2027
Artemis III 30 Sep, 2026
Artemis II 30 Sep, 2025
Europa Clipper 10 Oct, 2024
SpaceX CRS-29 09 Nov, 2023
Psyche 13 Oct, 2023
DSOC 13 Oct, 2023
Psyche Asteroid 05 Oct, 2023
Expedition 70 27 Sep, 2023