splashdown
Capsule meets ocean
Splashdown is the moment a spacecraft lands in the ocean at the end of its mission.
The term evokes the dramatic spray when a capsule hits water: We watched the splashdown live on television.
Early American space missions ended this way, with recovery ships waiting nearby.
The word sometimes describes any dramatic water landing.
Coming back in
- capsuleEnclosed dose container
- recoveryRegaining what was lost
- parachuteDrag-creating descent device
- ApolloSun deity, moonshot namesake
NASA · Soyuz · descent · module · heatshield · flotation · Pacific · Atlantic
reentry
Coming back in
Apollo · NASA · Soyuz · descent · module · heatshield · flotation · Pacific · Atlantic · helicopter
spray
Dispersed liquid droplets
sea · submersion · flotation · buoyancy · wet · soak · droplets · foam · wake · surface
plunge
Sudden steep descent
strike · slam · collision · force · jolt · thud · contact · belly-flop · cannonball · dive
- space operationsrocket launch, docking, spacewalk, EVA, landing
- spaceflightlaunch, astronaut, spacecraft, liftoff, orbit
- Space Ageastronaut, cosmonaut, rocket, satellite, spacecraft
- launcheslaunch, launched, rocket launch, blast off, satellite launch
- rocketryrocket, rockets, rocket fuel, rocket engine, rocket engines
- astronaut activitiesspacewalk, float, orbit, launch, land