As we discussed in Section 10-3, the gravitational potential energy is negative. Making the orbital radius \(r\) larger makes the gravitational potential energy less negative—that is, closer to zero—which means that the gravitational potential energy increases. The total mechanical energy is the sum of \(K\) and \(U_{\mathrm{grav}}\):
\(E = K + U_{\mathrm{grav}} = \frac{1}{2}mv^2 + \left( - \frac{Gm_{\mathrm{Earth}}m}{r}\right) = \frac{Gm_{\mathrm{Earth}}m}{2r} + \left( - \frac{Gm_{\mathrm{Earth}}m}{r}\right) \)
or: