soft landing, vbl. n. Astronautics.
Also softlanding.
[f. soft a. + landing vbl. n.]
1. a. A landing of a spacecraft that is slow enough for no serious damage to be incurred. Cf. soft a. 22 d.
| 1958 Proc. Lunar & Planetary Exploration Colloquium July 13/1 With a soft landing on the moon one might put down a payload of 225 to 800 pounds, but..only about 10 to 25 percent of this would be usable for instruments. 1959 Washington Post 24 Mar. a6/4 He said the first ‘soft landing’ on the moon and return probably will be made with a multi-stage chemical-fueled vehicle. 1966 Listener 24 Mar. 427/1 The main events [of 1966] have been the soft landing on the Moon.., and the progress of the two Venus rockets. 1967 New Scientist 25 May 448/2 Each of these craft will consist of..an experimental capsule to enter the Martian atmosphere and..make a soft landing either by parachute or..by means of retro rockets. 1971 Guardian 1 July 1/5 The Soyuz made a normal re-entry and soft landing. |
b. fig.
| 1969 Sci. Jrnl. Jan. 54/3 Should one bombard with excess energy or attempt..a ‘soft landing’ where the energy of the incoming particle is just enough to allow it to penetrate the barrier, be captured and form the compound nucleus. 1973 Newsweek 17 Sept. 65/2 Even if the President succeeds in pulling in the rampaging economy for a soft landing, of course, the arrival will be nonetheless bumpy for many. |
2. attrib. or as adj.
| 1960 Aeroplane XCIX. 541/2 Mr. Stoller said that in 1962 three Ranger vehicles were planned to rough-land payloads on the surface of the Moon. These will be followed by the soft-landing mission. 1962 [see landing-place 1 c]. 1965 Guardian 29 Dec. 3/7 The Apollo moon landing programme..depends on highly sophisticated soft-landing techniques. 1969 New Scientist 27 Feb. 439/2 The upshot of the planetary experiments should be to discover more about the suitability of Mars to support life; and to select possible sites for future soft-landing craft. |