Okay, so the silly fake ISS is being accelerated by gravity at nearly 20 mph every second it is in orbit.
There are over 31 million seconds in a year.
And the ISS was first put in orbit 20 years ago.
So, multiply 31 million by 20 by 20 and you'll have the number in miles per hour that gravity will have accelerated the silly fake ISS up to by now...
I get it in the tens of billions.
This is not debatable btw, which is why you've gone into mad AI shitpost frenzy mode trying to cover it up.
Nope, sit down.
The ISS has been accelerated by gravity perpendicular to movement.
(Thing about vectors, not just intensities.)
Tangential speed won't change on its own.
We have to set it to correct value to counter g by centripetal acceleration in the same amount.
Weight F = m v
2 / r
g = F / m
g = v
2 / r
(does not depend on mass)
v = SQRT(g * r) = SQRT(8.6822 * 6 771 000) = 7667.28 m/s
Speed of ISS required to counter g by own centripetal acceleration is v = 7.67 km/s.We will use boost of supply vehicle to adjust tangential speed to that value.
If the vacuum was total, the tangential speed would remain the same all the time.
The two transversal accelerations, centripetal and g, would balance each other and orbit would be stable.
Unfortunately, there are still some remaining molecules that create small drag, and we have to push ISS from time to time back to speed of 7.67 km/s.
EDIT: BTW, difference between balistic and satellite behavior is in further corrections of trajectory.
You are right that by only simple push directly from Earth one
can't achieve stable orbit.
What is needed is later correction when the object is already there.