This all seemed reasonable except this paragraph:<p>&quot;The reason they are floating around is that they have no net acceleration. The outward acceleration of (apparent) circular motion, which wants to sling them out into deep space, exactly balances the inward acceleration of gravity that wants to pull them down to Earth.&quot;<p>There is no &quot;outward acceleration&quot;. The weightlessness is because the craft they are in is accelerating towards Earth with exactly the same acceleration. The reason they don&#x27;t hit the ground is that they have a suitably high tangential velocity.