👍. I like science.

You wouldn't just drop mass along side you in space. It would just continue to float along beside you.

You definitely have to throw it behind you, like you said, but that's what rockets do. They throw mass behind them to make them move forward. That's a rocket.

When you throw mass behind you at one point in your orbit, you raise the height of your orbit on the opposite side of the orbited object (this is simplified).

So you're basically right, it's partially about the mass of the object, but it's mostly the firing of the rocket.

You've got some pretty good intuition though. That's basic orbital mechanics.