Suppose we have a space ship orbiting the earth. What must happen in order for the spaceship to leave orbit and fall back toward earth? The spaceship will fall back toward earth on its own but you have to just wait for it to fall.

The spaceship's forward motion must be slowed down so the earth's gravitational pull on it will be stronger than the ship's forward motion.

The spaceship's forward motion must be sped up so the earth's gravitational pull on it will be weaker than the ship's forward motion.

It is not possible for a spaceship orbiting the earth to leave orbit and fall back to earth once it is in orbit.

air exerts forces on falling objects near earth’s surface.

explanation:

the term 'free falls' refer to object that are falling towards the earth, in a situation in which gravity is the only force acting on the object.

for an object in free fall, the acceleration is constant (g, the gravitational acceleration), and so the velocity of the object constantly increases.

for objects near earth's surface, there is always another force acting on the object: the resistance due to the air. this force is opposed to the direction of fall of the object, and it is proportional to the velocity of the object, so as the object falls down, this force increases up to a point when it balances the force of gravity, and the object continues its motion at constant velocity (called terminal velocity). since in this case gravity is not the only force acting on the object, we are not in a situation of free fall.