vertical landing
Descending while standing
A vertical landing is the controlled descent of an aircraft or spacecraft that touches down without horizontal runway movement.
Helicopters land vertically by design.
The term gained prominence with reusable rocket boosters that return to landing pads: SpaceX pioneered vertical landing for orbital-class rockets.
Contrasts with conventional runway landings.
- VTOLPerpendicular takeoff ability
- rocketPropulsion-driven spacecraft
- rocket boosterInitial propulsion stage
- touchdownSix-point gridiron play
- descentDownward slope or lineage
thruster · SpaceX · Falcon · hover · drone · helicopter · reusable · burn · legs · precision · Harrier · controlled · freefall · guidance · propulsive · lunar · module · spacecraft
- spaceflightlaunch, astronaut, spacecraft, liftoff, orbit
- landingstouchdown, touch and go, controlled descent, splashdown, ditching
- eVTOLair taxi, flying car, tiltrotor, tilt-rotor, multicopter
- Reusable RocketsFalcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, reusable rocket, SpaceX
- spacecraft landingsplashdown, touchdown, controlled descent, retrorocket, retrorockets
vertical, vertically, verticality, land, landing, lands, landed, lander, landings