page_title: Soft landing (aeronautics)
hierarchical_section_title: Soft landing (aeronautics)
caption_attribution_description: English: The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley returned after spending 64 days in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Español: Amerizaje de la cápsula Crew Dragon Endeavour durante la misión SpaceX Demo-2.
context_page_description: 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 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
context_section_description: 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 New Shepard and a short-while later on an orbital trajectory by the Falcon 9.
  Horizontal landing, most aircraft and some spacecraft, such as the Space Shuttle, land this way.
  Being caught, as attempted with Genesis (spacecraft) and followed by some other form of landing.
caption: A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashes down
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley returned after spending 64 days in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D500", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 9.2 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2020:08:02 17:52:15", "Image Artist": "NASA/Bill Ingalls", "Image Copyright": "(NASA/Bill Ingalls)\n\nFor copyright and restrictions refer to -\u00a0http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html", "Image ExifOffset": "916", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1726", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5051", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/4000", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "640", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:08:02 14:48:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:08:02 14:48:44", "EXIF OffsetTime": "-04:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeOriginal": "-04:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeDigitized": "-04:00", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1495723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "126797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "500", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "09", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "09", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "38680329/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "38680329/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "750", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3030994", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[200, 500, 28/5, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6"}