What is the highest velocity a spacecraft has left Earth?

Question

I'd love to see anything in LEO that can impart 20.89km/s of delta V to anything.

got me wondering what the highest velocity a spacecraft has left the Earth, relative to Earth?

This could be expressed as $v_{\infty}$ km/s or $C_3$ (km^2/s^2) relative to Earth.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '19 at 04:35

11

That would be the New Horizons spacecraft, launched to a V-infinity of 16.26 km/s, with a monumental propulsion effort. The article describes the launch vehicle. Not only did it use a big Atlas V 551 with an expensive, high-performance Centaur upper stage, it had a third stage: an ATK Star 48B, a huge addition considering the New Horizons spacecraft weighed in at only 478 kg at launch.

answered Sep 07 '19 at 04:35

Tom Spilker

18,306
1
66
83

1

Excellent, and illustrates that (roughly speaking) it's harder to get to the Sun than to Pluto. – uhoh Sep 07 '19 at 04:43
New Horiiiiiiiizzohohons... – uhoh Sep 07 '19 at 14:03
Okay, this one's right up your alley; What do all these vectors point to in this New Horizons trajectory/operations simulation? – uhoh Sep 07 '19 at 14:40

What is the highest velocity a spacecraft has left Earth?

1 Answers1

Linked