Why People and Pens Stay Up in Space

A person in a space station, a home in space, lets go of a pen. It does not fall to the floor. Why?

Gravity, Earth's pull on things, is still there. It pulls the pen, the people and the station down. They all fall together. This is why the pen stays near the person.

On Earth, the floor stops you from falling. You can feel it under your feet. In the station, the floor is falling too.

So why does the station not hit Earth? It moves very fast to the side. Earth is round, so the ground turns away under it as it falls. The station keeps falling around Earth, not into it.

Gravity at the station is almost as strong as on the ground. Things stay up because they fall together, not because gravity is gone. And big, heavy things are still hard to start or stop moving.