Soft landing (aeronautics)

Landing that does not result in significant damage to the vehicle or its payload

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This article is about the term's application in the field of aeronautics. For other uses, see Soft landing (disambiguation)

Space Shuttle Endeavour during soft landing

A SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage landing on Droneship

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashes down

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.

A soft landing can be achieved by

* Parachute—often this is into water.
* 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.
* Being caught in midair, as done with Corona spy satellites and followed by some other form of landing.
* Reducing landing speed by impact with the body's surface, known as lithobraking.

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Types of takeoff and landing

Takeoff|

* Balanced field takeoff
* Non-rocket spacelaunch
* Rejected takeoff
* Rocket launch
* Space launch
* Zero-length launch

Assisted take-off|

* Catapult
* JATO
* Ski-jump

Takeoff and landing|

* CATOBAR
* CTOL
* STOBAR
* STOL
* STOVL
* V/STOL
* VTHL/VTOHL
* VTOL
* Launch and recovery cycle
* VTVL
* VTHL
* HTHL
* HTVL

Landing|

* Belly landing
* Corkscrew landing
* Crosswind landing
* Deadstick landing
* Emergency landing
* Flexible deck
* Forced landing
* Hard landing
* Shipborne rolling vertical landing
* Short-field landing
* Soft landing
* Splashdown
* Touch-and-go landing
* Water landing / Ditching
* Floating landing platform

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