A soft landing is any type of

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

landing that does not result in significant damage to or destruction of the vehicle or its payload, as opposed to a

hard landing A hard landing occurs when an aircraft or spacecraft hits the ground with a greater vertical speed and force than in a normal landing. The terms ''hard landing'' and ''firm landing'' are often confused though are inherently different. A hard la ...

. The average vertical speed in a soft landing should be about per second or less. A soft landing can be achieved by *

Parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

—often this is into water. * Vertical rocket power using

retrorockets A retrorocket (short for ''retrograde rocket'') is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a vehicle, thereby causing it to decelerate. They have mostly been used in spacecraft, with more limited use in short-runway aircraft land ...

, often referred to as

VTVL Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. A notable VTVL vehicle was the Apollo Lunar Module which delivered the first humans to the Moon. Building on the decades of ...

(vertical landing referred to as

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...

, is usually for aircraft landing in a level attitude, rather than rockets) — first achieved on a suborbital trajectory by

Bell Rocket Belt The Bell Rocket Belt is a low-power rocket propulsion device that allows an individual to safely travel or leap over small distances. It is a type of rocket pack. Overview Bell Aerosystems began development of a rocket pack which it called the ...

and on an orbital trajectory by the

Surveyor 1 Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the uncrewed Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States). This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the c ...

. * Horizontal landing, most aircraft and some spacecraft, such as the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

, land this way accompanied with a parachute. * Being caught in midair, as done with Corona spy satellites and followed by some other form of

landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or " spl ...

. * Reducing landing speed by impact with the body's surface, known as

lithobraking Lithobraking is a term used by spacecraft engineers to refer to a spacecraft reducing its velocity by impacting the surface of a planet or moon.McDowell, Jonathan (2020)"Lithobraking" ''Astronautical Glossary''. Retrieved May 16, 2022. Originally ...

References

Rocketry {{Rocket-stub

See also

References