how can the international space station travel 17000 mph using no fuel?

Newtion's First Law: An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

The ISS is subject to the acceleration of gravity continually perpendicular to it's direction of motion. That alters the direction of the ISS' motion but doesn't counter said motion. What unbalance force might one then suggest should impede the motion of the ISS?

.

It's in space. There's no friction to slow it down. When it got launched into space the rockets got it moving that fast. It's been doing it ever since.

Because it's in free fall, and that's the base speed needed to "miss" the ground. Once the motion starts (when the thing is launched, and put into orbit), it slows down extremely slowly, and it needs very little energy (fuel) to stay in orbit for a very long time - Newton's laws still apply to the frame of reference the ISS is in.

It's in something called orbits its reached a perfect height and speed where it will maintain orbit and will continue without any use of fuel

Fuel was used to place it in orbit, then there is not much to slow it down.

It is in orbit around the earth. When launched it's speed was set. In space there is no resistance to slow it down. Same with all satellites.

Magic

Iss Fuel

thinking this is 250 miles from earth, think of attempting to park a ferrari going a hundred and eighty mph right into a table certain, or slow shifting 18 wheeler truck, that merely could desire to no longer artwork. whilst the return and forth has the flexibility to return and forth 17000 mph, there are too many stuff that must be completed earlier docking that should could desire to be completed in the approximate sixty 8 minutes it would take to realize the station at finished velocity. you besides mght could desire to think with regard to the lack of ability of gravity and friction to slow the gap deliver down, it would be wasteful to apply gas to pass that rapid and merely could desire to apply counter-energetic measures to superb to a suitable docking velocity. Many, many, many distinctive reasons yet all justified by using huge analyze.

It DID use fuel. More specifically, the rockets that launched its various components used fuel (quite a lot of it, actually) to boost the components to that speed.

However, there is no friction in space, so now that the ISS is moving at that speed, it doesn't require fuel to keep going. It's just coasting.

A solar parachute uses light from te sun to produce energy and can potentially reach light speeds.