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

A soft landing can be achieved by

• Parachute—often this isinto water.

• Vertical rocket power usingretrorockets, often referred to asVTVL (vertical landing referred to asVTOL, is usually for aircraft landing in a level attitude, rather than rockets) — first achieved on a suborbital trajectory byBell Rocket Belt and on an orbital trajectory by theSurveyor 1.

• Horizontal landing, most aircraft and some spacecraft, such as theSpace Shuttle, land this way accompanied with a parachute.

• Being caught in midair, as done withCorona spy satellites and followed by some other form oflanding.
• Reducing landing speed by impact with the body's surface, known aslithobraking.

• List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies

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