Escape Velocity of Saturn

vesc,Saturn=35,500 m/sv_{\mathrm{esc},\mathrm{Saturn}} = 35,500\ \text{m/s}
Value35,500 m/s
StatusConventional / typical value
SourceNASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheet, Saturn (escape velocity)
CategoriesAstronomicalsolar-systemplanets
Escape Velocity of Saturn in every speed unit
millimeter per year1.1202948e+15 mm/yr
millimeter per hour127,800,000,000 mm/h
foot per day10,062,992,000 ft/d
inch per hour5,031,496,100 in/h
meter per day3,067,200,000 m/d
millimeter per minute2,130,000,000 mm/min
meter per hour127,800,000 m/h
inch per minute83,858,268 in/min
millimeter per second35,500,000 mm/s
foot per minute6,988,189 ft/min
centimeter per second3,550,000 cm/s
meter per minute2,130,000 m/min
inch per second1,397,637.8 in/s
kilometer per hour127,800 km/h
foot per second116,469.82 ft/s
mile per hour79,411.238 mph
knot69,006.479 kn
meter per second35,500 m/s
mach (sea level)104.32156 Ma
kilometer per second35.5 km/s
speed of light0.00011841525 c

Learning zone

Like Jupiter, Saturn clears the retention threshold for every gas: 35.5 km/s keeps even the primordial hydrogen and helium bound for the age of the solar system, preserving nebular composition. The number is best known in reverse. When Cassini exhausted its fuel in 2017, planetary-protection rules for the ocean moons Enceladus and Titan required disposing of the spacecraft, and the chosen grave was the planet itself: Cassini crossed the one-bar level at over 34 km/s, its final signal cut off as the atmosphere tore it apart — the Grand Finale.

The well is also a ladder. Titan, orbiting deep inside it, lends its own orbital energy freely: nearly every one of Cassini's 294 orbits was reshaped by a Titan flyby, a gravitational gearbox that let thirteen years of touring run on centimetres per second of thruster fuel.