soft landing

{{Short description|Landing that does not result in significant damage to the vehicle or its payload}}

{{Use American English|date=November 2020}}

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

{{More citation needed|date=August 2023}}

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 {{convert|2|m|ft|sp=us}} per second or less.{{Cite news |last=Sreedhar |first=Vidya |date=2023-08-23 |title=Chandrayaan-3 Effect! These 7 space-related stocks scale 52-week highs |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/chandrayaan-3-effect-these-7-space-related-stocks-scale-52-week-highs/articleshow/102983461.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-08-27 |issn=0013-0389}}

File:Falcon Heavy Side Boosters landing on LZ1 and LZ2 - 2018 (25254688767).jpg side boosters performing a Soft Landing via VTVL in 2018]]

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 accompanied with a parachute.

• 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.

File:SpaceX Demo-2 Landing (NHQ202008020015).jpg Crew Dragon capsule splashes down|351x351px]]

File:Airbus A380.jpg performing a soft landing at the Paris Air Show 2007|360x360px]]