soft-land

• soft land

soft-land (third-person singular simple present soft-lands, present participle soft-landing, simple past and past participle soft-landed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, astronautics, aviation) To land (a vehicle or other payload) on the surface of a body in such a manner that it survives the landing mostly or entirely intact and is usable or able to operate, at least briefly, following touchdown.

   Coordinate term: hard-land

   The Spirit and Opportunity rovers were soft-landed on Mars in 2004.

   The crate of supplies soft-landed in the drop zone under its parachute, allowing the soldiers to replenish their food and ammo for the next few days of fighting.

• soft landing