Final answer:
A satellite falling around Earth is a true example of a projectile in free fall. A craft escaping Earth will travel in a straight line, which is true due to Newton's first law. Kepler's laws still roughly apply even when satellites and planets are not isolated, making the statement false; sound doesn't travel in space's vacuum, so astronauts only see explosions but don't hear them.
Step-by-step explanation:
True or False: An Earth satellite is simply a projectile freely falling around the Earth. This statement is true. Satellites in orbit around Earth can be considered projectiles that are falling towards the planet but due to their high tangential velocity, they keep missing and thus remain in orbit. This is much like firing a bullet from a mountain top in a hypothetical scenario with no air resistance; the bullet would orbit the Earth if given sufficient velocity.
True or False: A rocket is launched into space and escapes Earth's gravitational pull. It will continue to travel in a straight line until it is acted on by another force. This statement is true, and it's a direct consequence of Newton's first law of motion, stating that an object in motion will stay in motion at a constant velocity, and in a straight line unless acted upon by a net external force.
True or False: A planet-satellite system must be isolated from other massive objects to follow Kepler's laws of planetary motion. This statement is false; while Kepler's laws assume an isolated two-body system for simplicity, in reality, satellites and planets are influenced by other bodies, and yet, they still approximately follow Kepler's laws. The discrepancies are accounted for under perturbation theory in celestial mechanics.
An astronaut on a spacewalk would observe an explosion of a satellite without hearing a boom as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space. Therefore, they would see the explosion, but would not hear a boom. This illustrates the unique conditions of space environment where sound waves cannot propagate as they require a medium.