This is a quick supplemental answer just to give additional confirmation to the other answers that for exactly v escape, the orbits remain similar to that of the Earth. Don't accept this answer! I used Wikipedia's equation for [escape velocity][4]: $$v_{esc}= \sqrt{\frac{2 GM}{r}}$$ and just integrated the forces of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and Jupiter on each other, and on six test particles. The six were fired straight "up" the +x, -x, +y, -y, +z, and -z directions from the corresponding six points on the Earth. I ran it twice for 100% escape velocity (first plot), and 102% (second plot). The left side of each plot is in an inertial frame, the right side is in the *synodic frame* rotating with the Earth's orbital motion around the solar system barycenter, centered on the Earth. I used the starting positions and velocities for the major bodies from June 29, 2018 00:00 UTC and [JPL's Horizons][3] You can see this confirms what the other answers say. At exactly the escape velocity, the orbits are heliocentric and nearly the same as the Earth's. For 102% (and of course higher) they start deviating. You can see that the +/-z shots oscillate vertically. [![100% escape velocity][1]][1] [![102% escape velocity][2]][2] def deriv(X, t): x, v = X.reshape(2, -1) xx = x.reshape(-1, 3) n = xx.shape[0] accs = [] for i in range(n): acc = np.zeros(3) for j in range(4): if j != i: xxij = xx[i] - xx[j] acc += -GM4[j] * xxij * ((xxij**2).sum())**-1.5 accs.append(acc) accs = np.hstack(accs) return np.hstack((v, accs)) def rotatem(X, theta): cth, sth = [f(theta) for f in (np.cos, np.sin)] x, y, z = X xr = cth*x - sth*y yr = cth*y + sth*x return np.vstack((xr, yr, z)) import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D from scipy.integrate import odeint as ODEint GMe = 3.9860E+14 # m/s GMm = 4.9049E+12 GMs = 1.3271E+20 GMj = 1.2669E+17 GM4 = GMe, GMm, GMs, GMj R4 = 6378137., 1738100., 696392000., 71492000. # m names = 'Earth', 'Moon', 'Sun', 'Jupiter' Re, Rm, Rs, Rj = R4 vescs = [np.sqrt(2.*GM/R) for (GM, R) in zip(GM4, R4)] vesce = vescs[0] for name, vesc in zip(names, vescs): print name, vesc X0e = 1000. * np.array([1.3539E+07, -1.5044E+08, -7.7480E+03, 2.9164E+01, 2.5290E+00, 8.3979E-04]) X0m = 1000. * np.array([1.3481E+07, -1.5083E+08, 1.7757E+04, 3.0127E+01, 2.3628E+00, -6.1480E-02]) X0s = 1000. * np.array([9.8486E+04, 1.0333E+06, -1.3866E+04, -1.2308E-02, 6.41628E-03, 3.0230E-04]) X0j = 1000. * np.array([-4.9851E+08, -6.3418E+08, 1.3781E+07, 1.0118E+01, -7.4520E+00, -1.9535E-01]) X0x = np.hstack([x[:3] for x in (X0e, X0m, X0s, X0j)]) X0v = np.hstack([x[3:] for x in (X0e, X0m, X0s, X0j)]) d = np.array(((-1, 0, 0), (1, 0, 0), (0, -1, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, -1), (0, 0, 1)), dtype=float) xobs = (d*Re + X0e[:3]).flatten() factor = 1.02 vobs = (d*vesce*factor + X0e[3:]).flatten() X0x = np.hstack((X0x, xobs)) X0v = np.hstack((X0v, vobs)) X0 = np.hstack((X0x, X0v)) rs = np.sqrt((X0x.reshape(-1, 3)**2).sum(axis=0)) for name, vesc, r in zip(names, vescs, rs): print name, vesc, r times = np.arange(0, 365*24*3600, 10000) answer, info = ODEint(deriv, X0, times, full_output=True) n = answer.shape[0] xall, vall = answer.T.reshape(2, -1, 3, n) xe, ve = [thing[0] for thing in (xall, vall)] xps, vpe = [thing[4:] for thing in (xall, vall)] theta = np.arctan2(xe[1], xe[0]) xer = rotatem(xe, -theta) xpsr = np.stack([rotatem(thing, -theta) for thing in xps]) if True: fig = plt.figure() ax1 = fig.add_subplot(1, 2, 1, projection='3d') w = 1.5E+08 x, y, z = 1E-03 * xe ax1.plot(x, y, z, '-b', linewidth=1) ax1.plot(x[:1], y[:1], z[:1], 'ok') for x, y, z in 1E-03 * xps: ax1.plot(x, y, z, linewidth=0.5) ax1.set_xlim(-w, w) ax1.set_ylim(-w, w) ax1.set_zlim(-w, w) ax2 = fig.add_subplot(1, 2, 2, projection='3d') w = 1.5E+07 x, y, z = 1E-03 * (xer-xer) ax2.plot(x, y, z, '-b', linewidth=1) ax2.plot(x[:1], y[:1], z[:1], 'ok') for x, y, z in 1E-03 * (xpsr-xer): ax2.plot(x, y, z, linewidth=0.5) ax2.set_xlim(-w, w) ax2.set_ylim(-w, w) ax2.set_zlim(-w, w) plt.show() [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/9j0Us.png [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/udmUm.png [3]: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity