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Soft landing

Landing that does not result in significant damage to the vehicle or its payload From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soft landing
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A soft landing is any type of aircraft, rocket or spacecraft landing that does not result in significant damage to or destruction of the vehicle or its payload, as opposed to a hard landing. The average vertical speed in a soft landing should be about 2 meters (6.6 ft) per second or less.[1]

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Two Falcon Heavy side boosters performing a Soft Landing via VTVL in 2018

A soft landing can be achieved by

  • Vertical rocket power using retrorockets, often referred to as VTVL (vertical landing referred to as VTOL, is usually for aircraft landing in a level attitude, rather than rockets) — first achieved on a suborbital trajectory by Bell Rocket Belt and on an orbital trajectory by the Surveyor 1.
  • Horizontal landing, most aircraft and some spacecraft, such as the Space Shuttle, land this way accompanied with a parachute.
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A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashes down
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An Airbus A380 performing a soft landing at the Paris Air Show 2007
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References

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