Because the light reflects multiple times until it gets to the Cassegrain focus.
Explanation:
The Cassegrain design can be seen in a reflecting telescope. In this type of design the light is collected by a concave mirror, and then intercepted by a secondary convex mirror, and sends it down to a central opening in the primary mirror (concave mirror), in which a detector is placed (Cassegrain focus)
Since, the light is reflected many times due to Cassegrain design, that leads to shorter telescopes.
In free fall, mass is not relevant and there's no air resistance, so the acceleration the object is experimenting will be equal to the gravity exerted. If the object is falling on our planet, the value of gravity is approximately 9.81ms2 .