History Main / SpaceFriction

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' averts this in an [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent anti-satellite mission starring an orbital fighter]], and even puts the player through reentry procedure. Yes, a hard portrayal of space combat in [[GenreShift the one sci-fi installment]] of a series devoted to modern air combat where the AcceptableBreaksFromReality are as numerous as [[HyperspaceArsenal the missiles hiding within its airplanes' wings.]] Yes, hard in more ways than one despite the objective of the mission boiling down to [[BreatherLevel "gun down the defenseless, stationary targets within the time limit"]], because you're going to have to take a few tries to break air-combat habits, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory even if you're aware of this trope.]]

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' averts this in an [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent anti-satellite mission starring an orbital fighter]], and even puts the player through reentry procedure. Yes, a [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] portrayal of space combat in [[GenreShift the one sci-fi installment]] of a series devoted to modern air combat where the AcceptableBreaksFromReality are as numerous as [[HyperspaceArsenal the missiles hiding within its airplanes' wings.]] Yes, hard in more ways than one despite the objective of the mission boiling down to [[BreatherLevel "gun down the defenseless, stationary targets within the time limit"]], because you're going to have to take a few tries to break air-combat habits, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory even if you're aware of this trope.]]

* ''Series/TheExpanse'' actually shows spaceships decelerating on the way to their intended location.
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Tangent", O'Neill and Teal'c are stranded in a death glider without engines. They continue to travel at constant velocity, expecting to reach the Oort cloud in several years. Indeed, stolen death gliders are programmed to operate in this manner, on a course toward a planet controlled by the Goa'uld who owns them. Since Goa'uld are absurdly long-lived if not killed violently, they fully expect to recover death gliders in this manner.
* In ''Series/StargateUniverse''; ''Destiny'' and its shuttles move in the BSG fashion.
** Noticeably in episode "Darkness", where the ''[[CoolStarship Destiny]]'' uses the atmosphere of a gas giant for braking when out of power for sub-light engines.

* Applied crazily in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'', in the episode "Godfellas": when Bender is launched out of a torpedo tube, he keeps going. He's realistically able to slow himself a bit by throwing away pieces of treasure he had stored in his compartment, but runs out of objects to throw before he's stopped himself completely. However, the ship cannot catch up to him because it was moving at "top speed" when they launched him, so he was moving even faster. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the DVDCommentary:

* Played straight in the episode "A Planet Blown to Pieces" of ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois''''... Space''. The freighter in which our heroes are scaping of a star that has gone supernova is hit and damaged by debris of a destroyed[[note]]Complete with two ships [[SpaceIsAir falling like aircraft hit by flak]][[/note]] Cassiopeian fleet [[TooDumbToLive sent to savage equipment and men of base in a planet orbiting it]], grinding to a halt even with a puff of smoke until her main reactor has an emergency repair moving then again.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Lampshaded in "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E1TheUnknown The Unknown]]". When Anakin, Rex, and Fives grapple onto the Separatist shuttle carrying Tup, the battle droid pilot mentions that they were experiencing drag. Its tactical droid superior finds this very strange, since it's technically impossible.
-->'''Kraken:''' ... you were experiencing drag in the vacuum of space?\\
'''Droid pilot:''' Yeah, strange; but it is gone now.
[[/folder]]

* The dogfights in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' film series were [[WordOfGod intentionally]] choreographed around old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII dogfight footage, and thus visibly obey this trope.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'', a spaceship brakes... and even emits a kind of shower of sparks, like a car would with burnt rubber.

--->'''David X. Cohen''': I wanna know how a ship can skid to a halt in outer space.\\

----

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'': SpaceHulks are huge conglomerates of ships that are mushed together in the warp, occasionally getting spit back out into realspace and continuing to drift until they get sucked back in or fall into a sun.

* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' handpicked a number of physics rules to abide by and it's pretty consistent with those, but then there are the ones it dislikes and rapes constantly.

* The drastically underappreciated Franchise/StarWars space simulator ''X-Wing Alliance'' used relatively realistic space physics, unfortunately making stopping a nightmare in cargo-collection missions.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Spaceballs}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_space_tracks1.png]]]]

This was earth-shattering stuff when he introduced the notion — in 1687! Sadly, most writers for science fiction TV shows and films are apparently still stuck in Aristotelian physics -- according to which a body in motion will ''always'' slow down even in vacuum -- and just don't get a single clue of how proper Newtonian physics work.

* The dogfights in the ''Film/StarWars'' film series were [[WordOfGod intentionally]] choreographed around old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII dogfight footage, and thus visibly obey this trope.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' portrays spaceships moving realistically according to Newtonian physics, even showing damaged vessels with no engines gliding helplessly out of range of help. Ships with gravity-based technology can move in a more ''Franchise/StarTrek'' or ''Film/StarWars'' manner; watch the ''White Stars'' dart around the comparatively lumbering Earthforce Omega Destroyers which, having no gravity-based technology, maneuver far, far more like spacecraft we have today.

For that matter, the entire notion of only having enough fuel to travel so far is a little suspect: if you've got enough fuel to reach top speed, you've got enough fuel to go anywhere; once you reach top speed, you can just shut the engine off and coast, though this is assuming you're flying along a ballistic trajectory. Of course, it would become a problem if you [[ComingInHot don't have enough fuel to]] ''[[ComingInHot stop]]'' [[ComingInHot at the end]] -- or if, for whatever reason, you have to turn somewhere, or if your engine fuel doubles as power generator fuel, which would cause a black-out in your ship (which, if it comes up in a SpaceFriction plot, generally means the crew has a few hours to restore power before running out of air). Even so, this would result in a broken-engined ship perhaps missing its target or crashing into another, not stopping dead.

** The most noticeable application of SpaceFriction occurs whenever a ship explodes in mid-flight: its explosion will be motionless despite whatever inertia the ship had previously. One instance where this can be seen very clearly is when the Y-Wings are making their trench run in close formation in ''Film/ANewHope''. One of the Y-Wings explodes, and the other Y-Wing suddenly leaps forward, leaving that explosion behind him.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' did this in "Demons and Angels" when the ''Dwarf'' temporarily explodes and the crew narrowly escape in a ''Starbug''. The nearest asteroid with an "S3"[[note]]"Solar 3," i.e. Earth-like and breathable[[/note]] atmosphere is six hours away, but they only have enough fuel for five hours' flight. That's not the last bit of fridge logic in this scene. ''Red Dwarf'' also ditched SpaceFriction in a later episode (see below).

* Applied crazily in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'', in the episode "Godfellas": when Bender is launched out of a torpedo tube, he keeps going. He's realistically able to slow himself a bit by throwing away pieces of treasure he had stored in his compartment, but runs out of objects to throw before he's stopped himself completely. However, the ship cannot catch up to him because it was moving at "top speed" when they launched him, so he was moving even faster. [LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the DVDCommentary:

* In the film SpaceCamp, one of the instructors actually informs the students that they keep drifting unless encountering an opposing force.
* The film {{Armageddon}} references physics nicely when one of the NASA astronauts explains physics to our drilling team by pointing out that if she [[GroinAttack kicked one of them in the balls]], he'd float away. "Rock Hound" asks [[DeadpanSnarker when they start training for that.]]

[[folder:Comic Bppls]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* In ''Videogame/SpaceEngineers'', friction is completely absent bar a minuscule amount at very low speeds to prevent objects from endlessly drifting. In order for a spaceship to have full control, it needs thrusters on all six faces (forward/reverse/left/right/up/down) and a gyroscope for rotation; lacking a axis means the ship must rotate to bring a thruster to bear in order to cancel out velocity in that direction. Same goes for ''VideoGame/EmpyrionGalacticSurvival''.

** That's actually a potential aversion. Crichton presumably learned to fly in familiar Air Force fighter jets. Space combat would be extremely different to jet combat, regardless of what ''Star Wars'' shows us -- consider the Starfuries on ''Babylon 5'' and the way they coast, reverse, spin on their axes, and move ''nothing like any aircraft on Earth''. Just because Aeryn's ship can fly in an atmosphere doesn't mean she's going to be ''any good'' at it. When you have the capacity to raze entire cities to the ground from high orbit, atmospheric dogfighting probably isn't high on your list of training priorities, and her atmospheric flying experience most likely consists of ship-to-surface and back again.

* In the MMORPG ''VideoGame/EveOnline'', this is taken to ridiculous extremes for an otherwise acceptably scientific game. Not only does space have friction in EVE, but avid fans have actually done the math and determined that space in the EVE universe has the consistency of WD-40. When paired with the fact that a ship traveling on traditional propulsion methods actually has a top speed and an acceleration curve, it strains SuspensionOfDisbelief.
** It's [[AllThereInTheManual stated somewhere amongst the backstory]] that warp drives drag against the fabric of space, so a ship without a warp drive would be able to go as fast as its shields could handle (dust gets dangerous at high speeds), although it would be limited to slower-than-light travel.
*** The Apocrypha expansion of March 2009 removed a feature that caused one's ship to shake violently when entering or exiting warp, as if it were flying through an atmosphere. [[RealityIsUnrealistic People complained]], and it was returned in a subsequent patch.

* The ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' video game series.
** It's just not fun trying to chase after a ship that suddenly became disabled when it was on its afterburner. Besides, you've got to worry about that [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence invisible barrier]] [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale 150km away]] from your starting position that causes you to "collide with yourself" and blow up.
** The [=FSOpen=] project actually implemented real-world physics at one point: more as a proof-of-concept thing than anything else. After all, the engine was designed around {{Old School Dogfight}}ing, so playing with "Newtonian physics" completely broke the AI and all game balance. A few mods for the game engine have since used the altered physics, with custom AI written to handle realistic physics.

* In the game ''Battlecruiser3000AD'' (possibly also the prequels and sequels in the same series). When you stop applying thrust you will eventually stop. But if you shut down all power to the engine you will go on with constant speed until you turn.

* Applied crazily in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'', in the episode "Godfellas": when Bender is launched out of a torpedo tube, he keeps going. He's realistically able to slow himself a bit by throwing away pieces of treasure he had stored in his compartment, but runs out of objects to throw before he's stopped himself completely. However, the ship cannot catch up to him because it was moving at "top speed" when they launched him, so he was moving even faster.
** Another episode stated that the ship went 99% of the speed of light ([[ItRunsOnNonSensoleum which was stated to have been increased some time ago]]), so their speed would be limited by relativity, but then that raises the question of how Bender went faster and how anyone could ever get around as far as they could.
*** According to relativity no matter how fast you're going things can still move at the speed of light relative to you in any direction.
** These, and many other scientific inaccuracies are [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the DVDCommentary:

** The ''same'' episode mentioned in the first addendum also states that the ship isn't always moving, it ''moves the universe around it". ...So yeah, wrap your head around that.

* Averted in George Johanssons series ''Universums öde'' (~Destiny of the universe, 1979-1986). Humanity's nuclear-powered spaceships journey through the solar system by accelerating at 1G until they're halfway to their destination where they start decelerating at the same rate, thereby solving the problem of on-ship artificial gravity. Although you would need to reverse the floor and the ceiling to ensure you're being pushed in the right direction at the midpoint, which could create some problems for furniture and such.
** Or you just turn the ship arround and use your main engines to decelerate. Saving both material for engines and creating a nicer looking ship.

* Averted in ''Series/StargateUniverse''; ''Destiny'' and its shuttles move in the BSG fashion.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''
** The cut-off-our-engine-and-coast trick is used to approach Niska's space station without being detected.
* Averted in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. Vipers can turn on just about any axis, and the visual effects always show thrusters on the sides of the fighters engaging when this happens. One of Starbuck's favorite maneuvers is to flip her Viper end-over-end to point her guns directly at the enemy fighter following her, making it so that her bird is travelling backwards. During 4x09, The Hub, the show even uses [[spoiler: unpowered Vipers tethered to Cylon raiders to escape enemy detection before a battle. One of the pilots says "What's going to stop us when the Raider in front of us stops?"]]
** The reimagined BSG has several notable aversions. In the pilot, Boomer and Helo's raptor takes damage and starts leaking fuel. Boomer gets round this by shutting the engines down and letting their momentum carry them to their destination.
** Another example comes during the Resurrection Ship arc. Starbuck shuts down the engines on her stealth ship and flies it right through the Resurrection Ship on thrusters alone. She goes completely unnoticed until she powers her engines back up again, at which point she's jumping out anyway.

* The indie 4X game, ''Videogame/StarRuler'' has newtonian physics on all the ships. The only thing restricting ships is their acceleration speed (and fuel), meaning you can have ships zipping through star systems at a sizable fraction of the speed of light. Ships disabled from crew death, power failure, or running out of fuel will cause them to drift along their path until the game kills it after a few minutes to save processing power. If you have stations orbiting other stations, and the core station is destroyed, the orbiting stations will be catapulted out of their orbit, then fall into orbit around the star; this can lead to stations spinning around a star at insane speeds, with nothing to limit their maximum speed.

* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', Human, Tarka, Hiver, Zuul and Morrigi ships, while using some form of FTL to travel through interstellar space, use regular Newtonian reaction thrusters for tactical combat. Destroying the engine section of the ships of these races will cause them to drift helplessly away from the battle, at whatever speed they're going at, in whatever direction they're going at. They sometimes end up crashing into a planet or an asteroid, and get destroyed. Liir ships, however, don't use regular thrusters at all -- they use "stutter warp" (a propulsion method involving fast, repeated short-range teleportation) for both interstellar and tactical movement. Destroying their stutter warp engines will cause them to halt wherever they are.
** The trope is even more averted by the [[AwesomeButImpractical Kinetic Kill missile]], a solid-body projectile that impacts into ships at a horrid speed. A ship hit by one of those will start flying and ''won't'' be slowing down again.
** Actually, Tarka can research technology that allows them to use their hyperdrives for tactical combat by manipulating the hyperspace bubble to move the ship. Unlike Liir ships, however, Tarka ships with destroyed engines will continue coasting.
** Also, even with destroyed engines, ships are usually able to slowly get back into battle by using their thrusters.
* Averted to hell and back in the 2000 space combat/trading [[NintendoHard simulator-with]]-a-[[HardCore capital-SIMULATOR]] ''VideoGame/{{Terminus}}''. The game uses painfully realistic physics -- to the point where the ''extremely'' common fate of new players is to simply have to quit and restart, because they are drifting endlessly through the infinite emptiness of space, having burned just ''slightly'' too much fuel on an earlier acceleration or correction.
** On top of that, it also factors in relative hull strength, overall mass, and acceleration. Got your ship doing top speed and try to make a 90 degree turn? Have fun dying. Loaded cargo ships are sitting ducks and it's entirely possible to overcompensate on a docking run and hit your target. There's a lot of effort put into making sure things behave right in space.

* Zig-zagged in ''VideoGame/ShoresOfHazeron''. If you use [[{{Unobtanium}} eludium]] in your engines and they are receiving power, then your velocity is always conserved ''relative to the facing of the ship'', which takes some getting used to. If you are drifting to starboard while facing galactic north, and you turn to face galactic west, you will now be drifting north. Thrust is therefore required to slow down, but you can change heading instantly and even spin in a tight circle. Rocket engines, however, provide a straight aversion. All ships will drift realistically when power is lost.
* In ''VideoGame/StarControl'', every ship has a "maximum speed" they can reach on their own, but don't slow down without a good reason and may even orbit a planet. In ''Star Control II'' combat, this nominal maximum is easily surpassed with a staple maneuver "Leyland whip" -- use of a planet's gravity to accelerate -- until the ship collides with something or fires thrusters. Some collisions do the same.

* While ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' abuses the trope in normal flight, there is a button you can hold to continue moving in your current direction at the current speed. You can even spin around and fire backwards. A real pedant could use this system to fly the ship in a (pseudo) real fashion!
** For example, it also allows you to fire your afterburners for a few seconds and then coast along in your current direction at extreme speeds, which is terribly useful if you need to get into or out of a particular fight very quickly, or if you just get impatient.
** Another case that supports the trope is a mission to stop a capital ship whose engines are stuck from colliding with asteroids in an [[AsteroidThicket unusually dense field]]. After a while of you blowing up the asteroids, the captain of the ship will finally ask you to destroy its engine power plant. As soon as that happens, the large ship coasts to a stop within seconds.
* In ''VideoGame/VegaStrike'', spacecraft behave more or less like this by default, but it's a partial compensation by the navicomputer as a convenience for {{Old School Dogfight}}ing and docking -- as such it's limited by the thrusters' force and eats fuel all the time when velocity changes. One key sets "Zero" speed vector to match the target's, which makes docking easy. Turn off "Combat Mode" and velocity limits raise 100x, turn off Flight Computer and the spaceship behaves more like the real world. Whether you'll want to use it in combat is a matter of style and controls -- sometimes dancing on thrusters manually without auto-compensators works better. One of stock tactics is [[DeathOfAThousandCuts whittling]] foes on [[HitAndRunTactics fast fly-by]], especially efficient if their weapons are more powerful but yours are shield-piercing.
** In fact, the idea was copied from somewhat older I-War series, where it was a major gameplay feature. Complete with "dock-to-that-flying-thing-and-accelerate-it-sideways" missions.
** Also in ''Series/BabylonFive: I've found her''.
* In Origin's classic spaceflight sim/RPG ''SpaceRogue'' you could toggle between 'Cruise' mode where (according to the manual) the computer automatically handled your main engines and maneuvering thrusters, letting you point where you want without having to manually counter-thrust to stop and apply min thrust in the new direction. You still had to fight your own inertia though. And you could turn this off completely for 'Newtonian Flight' if you so desired, allowing you to burn hard in one direction and then spin and coast backwards. This was a game breaking tactic since enemies always evade when perused, but stay locked on you if you're the one being chased, allowing you to fire away without much worry of evasion. You could also use the Newtonian Flight mode to slingshot around gravity wells...if you were really good at it.

* The drastically underappreciated Franchise/StarWars space simulator ''X-Wing Alliance'' used relatively realistic space physics, unfortunately making stopping a nightmare in cargo-collection missions.
* In the game ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident'' the earth designed vessels have huge thrusters on the back, and huge thrusters on the front. When you order you ship to stop, the ones in front fire like mad. In fact, you can clearly see a variety of maneuvering thrusters in operation. This is even true of the later alien vessel you get, which also has forward pointed engines (though far less obvious).
* Although the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series plays this trope mostly straight, in the later games some fighters have the option of "autoslide", which will make your fighter operate in a purely Newtonian manner for as long as autoslide is toggled. To actually change your vector requires turning it off and going back to playing the trope straight, however, then turning it back on when you're on the desired heading and have accelerated back up to the desired velocity.
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' averts this in an [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent anti-satellite mission starring an orbital fighter]], and even puts the player through reentry procedure. Yes, a [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] portrayal of space combat in [[GenreShift the one sci-fi installment]] of a series devoted to modern air combat where the AcceptableBreaksFromReality are as numerous as [[HyperspaceArsenal the missiles hiding within its airplanes' wings.]] Yes, hard in more ways than one despite the objective of the mission boiling down to [[BreatherLevel "gun down the defenseless, stationary targets within the time limit"]], because you're going to have to take a few tries to break air-combat habits, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory even if you're aware of this trope.]]
* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram''. Learning how to control the orbit of your ship without friction is one of the challenges of the game, especially once you need to move that orbit out of [[AvertedTrope 2-D Space]].
* The PC game ''Inner Space'' averts this... but since the areas you play in are kinda small, you're more likely to slam into something than coast for very long.
* In ''VideoGame/SpaceRun'', you build components on your ship as it travels making deliveries. You can add thrusters to go faster, and if they're destroyed your ship will slow down and stop.

* ''VideoGame/{{Evochron}}'' averts it with a fully Newtonian flight system. However, switching out of inertial mode has the ship's computer use thrusters to approximate space friction. The Newtonian system still underlies it all though, so manoeuvring still tends to be a bit trickier than games which play this trope straight - trying to take a sharp corner at high speed in a race will tend to result in you flying sideways out of the course, as well as the thrusters constantly using fuel for every slight movement you make.
* ''VideoGame/AffordableSpaceAdventures'' doesn't have any genuine space travel, but the Small Craft is equipped with an anti gravity system that is paired with a Decelerator, a device that serves to create artificial Space Friction to cause the Small Craft to slow down to a stop when thrust stops. The Decelerator can simply be turned off if one wants to continue moving even after cutting the thrust.

** It may be a subversion, as ''Excelsior'' is in Earth's orbit. Her engines are no longer providing the thrust needed to achieve escape velocity, so she is losing momentum due to Earth's gravity. Although that would open up a whole new can of worms in GravitySucks, as an orbiting object by definition can't be decelerated by gravity.

* In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', After Captain Picard [[RammingAlwaysWorks rams the Scimitar]] causing much of ''Enterprise's'' hull to penetrate that of the other vessel, Shinzon reverses his engines to separate the two ships. It works quite nicely, and all without any opposing thrust from ''Enterprise''.
** Actually, it would work nicely, as the structures of the two ships aren't very well bound together. They have simply been pushed nose to nose, the inertia of the Enterprise, along with the weak coupling strength of the materials would mean that this maneuver would be perfectly workable. It even makes one thing make sense: If a ship has the engines and thrusters to perform the moves we see the Nemesis do, then it should be able to back up incredibly quickly. We also see it do this: the emergency stop. So why, when it is thrusting away from the Enterprise, does it move so slowly? Answer: they were both accelerating due to the thrust.

*** This was in the first episode, and it's an aversion of the trope. After they set the controls to all stop, you could actually hear the engines increase in power (they were at sublight, so impulse engines) as they slowed down, until they said "now showing all stop" and you heard the engines stop.
** It's also averted in some episodes -- Final Mission springs to mind, along with Soldiers Of The Empire.

** But Geoge Clooney's character keeps being "pulled" by an unknown force as Sandra Bullock's character cuts him loose and he floats away, when he was already "stopped" in relation to her.
*** It wasn't unknown. It has to do with angular momentum and angular velocity. They were [[spoiler: swinging on the paracord, only very slowly after they got tangled and pulled a huge length of it father away from where it was caught, which acted like a pivot. Same principal of a ballerina slowing down in her spin by extending here arms outward. If one watches the scene again, you can see them still moving upwards in relation to the ISS. And with all of that equipment they have on, it makes sense as they why he was being pulled away. Which means it's still averted.]]

However, the reason these things happen is friction. On a straight road, with good tires, you can coast quite a long way on even a slight downgrade. In space, where there is no friction between the car and air to contend with, you can coast even at top speed almost ''forever'' (albeit perhaps not in a perfectly straight line, due to gravitation), or until you hit something, which, given how big space is, is literally astronomically unlikely.

* The dogfights in the ''Film/StarWars'' film series were [[WordOfGod intentionally]] choreographed around old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII dogfight footage, and thus visibly obeying this trope. The most noticeable application of SpaceFriction however occurs whenever a ship explodes in mid-flight: its explosion will be motionless despite whatever inertia the ship had previously. One instance where this can be seen very clearly is when the Y-Wings are making their trench run in close formation in ''Film/ANewHope''. One of the Y-Wings explodes, and the other Y-Wing suddenly leaps forward, leaving that explosion behind him.