QUESTION:
Why is there less gravity in space?

ANSWER from Chris Potts on January 30, 1996:
The force of gravity is definitely less in space than on the surface of the 
Earth. That's why astronauts float about the shuttle cabin and do so many neat 
tricks in the weightless environment of space.

The amazing thing is that while the astronauts are floating about the
space shuttle, they are subject to the same universal law of gravitation
that we are here on Earth. This universal law of gravitation describes the
force between two particles with mass. It turns out that the force of
gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
the two masses. This means that if you double your distance from a
particle with mass, the gravitational attraction becomes one-fourth of the
original force. So the force of gravity will significantly decrease if you
get far enough away from the attracting body. In space, the force of
gravity is less because you're farther from the Earth and its
gravitational attraction.