Astronauts do not have to move at escape velocity. They are nowhere near the edge of our gravity well. If they have been in orbit, they do have to enter the atmosphere at around orbital speed however. That’s around 9 km/s, which is why anything returning from orbit is covered in heat shielding and material meant to burn up instead of the craft, because these craft experience a lot of shock heating.
You can skydive from the edge of space, because that’s actually not very high, so you don’t reach too terrifying a velocity. You could not skydive from orbit (mostly because you’re in orbit, you wouldn’t actually fall down). If you entered the atmosphere at orbital speed you would burn up. And experience winds strong enough to pull teeth. Hard to say what exactly would kill you, but it would do so very quickly.
Astronauts do not have to move at escape velocity. They are nowhere near the edge of our gravity well. If they have been in orbit, they do have to enter the atmosphere at around orbital speed however. That’s around 9 km/s, which is why anything returning from orbit is covered in heat shielding and material meant to burn up instead of the craft, because these craft experience a lot of shock heating.
You can skydive from the edge of space, because that’s actually not very high, so you don’t reach too terrifying a velocity. You could not skydive from orbit (mostly because you’re in orbit, you wouldn’t actually fall down). If you entered the atmosphere at orbital speed you would burn up. And experience winds strong enough to pull teeth. Hard to say what exactly would kill you, but it would do so very quickly.