• •Jalopnik confirms that a paper airplane in a vacuum will travel in a straight line indefinitely until it strikes an object.
• •The absence of air resistance means the airplane cannot generate lift or experience drag, negating standard aerodynamic flight behavior.
• •The lack of gravity-based trajectory data for low-mass objects in microgravity leaves the exact dispersion pattern of flight-folded materials in orbital debris zones unquantified.

Throwing a paper airplane in a vacuum results in constant-velocity motion rather than flight, as there is no atmosphere to provide lift. Unlike terrestrial environments where gravity and drag dictate movement, an object in space follows Newton's First Law without the interference of air density. However, the material composition of paper is highly susceptible to sublimation and structural degradation under extreme UV radiation. Understanding this distinction is vital for those modeling small-scale orbital dynamics, as it clarifies why traditional aerodynamic shapes fail when removed from a planetary atmosphere.