The first man in space was in April 1960 when Yuri Gagarin, from the USSR, completed a low earth orbit of the earth. There were rules established to define an orbit of the earth, which included that the astronaut must be stay in the space shuttle the whole time. Gagarin actually parachuted out of the rocket as it was thought to be safer. This was kept as a secret for about a decade by the Soviets so they'd get the record.
Newton worked out that with the curvature of the earth, through thinking about a canon ball falling to earth but because of the curvature of the earth falling further than expected. He worked out that if you put more gunpowder in, the ball would end up not getting any closer to the earth because it would be falling at the same rate as the curvature of the earth falls away. Even more powder and it will have an elliptical orbit, going away from the earth before coming back in. With more, it would escape completely.
This wouldn't work because
- air resistance would slow the canon ball down and it would fall to earth,
- you'd need the canon ball to leave the canon at 6km/h. A modern rifle shot is only 1km/h..
Low earth orbit: space shuttle can only get this high. Needs a booster rocket to go further. Hubble telescope is in a low earth orbit.
Geostationary orbit: 36000km: geostationary orbit takes about 24 hours (23 hours 57 minutes)
Moon orbit: 400 000km: 28 days to orbit
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