Border between Earth and space

[Extollager]

Where is the border between Earth and space?

 

[J Riff]

Early jets couldn't get past about seven miles without losing the ability to fly. That was the border then, I guess. Thin air or not, turning sideways at 7oo MPH resulted in breakup, and a long long fall.

 

[tinkerdan]

There's a somewhat loosely defined place in space where a flier becomes an astronaut and in a way part of the definition of the edge could be considered that distance.

I wonder though how far out the magnetosphere extends because since that seems to protect us and make life possible we might consider it's boundary as the edge of the Earth.

Not just where we have to fend for ourselves but where the real protection lies. After all the deep ocean is a place we have to fend for ourselves in almost the same type and manner and we do not call that the edge of our world.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Magnetosphere - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some specialist Aircraft can technically get into sub orbital "space" with a suitable vector. Engines fail.

Wikipedia says

The Kármán line, or Karman line, lies at an altitude of 100 kilometres (62 mi) above the Earth's sea level, and commonly represents the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space

The International Space Station (ISS) is only "just" in space (about 420km) and experiences atmospheric drag mainly due to solar panels, so without propulsion the orbit would decay quite quickly (2km per month?).

TV satellites are at about 45,000 km, about 100 times "higher" than ISS. The Shuttle couldn't "fly" this far.

See also http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-...tude-record-for-an-airplane-141522931/?no-ist

The X15 reached edge of space, approximately 100 km, but not from a ground launch under own power, so MiG E-266M has the altitude record at 123,523 feet, about 37km, just over 1/3rd of the distance to edge of space.