this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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So, the issue does come down to the chutes. A chute capable of reducing decent speed to 10m/s is significantly larger than one capable of getting the speed to 60 m/s. Impractically large on a weight constrained thing like a space capsule.
The Soyuz uses a small set of retro rockets to reduce speed in the last few seconds before touch down, and even then it’s like being in a car crash.
On the Vostok capsules the astronauts didn’t even land with the capsules, they just bailed out and parachuted down.
Landing in the ocean is significantly more comfortable and less complicated.
Your comment sounds good at first, it's just that they splash down in water at 7.5m/s.
The nasa blog on the final day said. “At 5,400 feet, Orion’s drogue parachutes were cut and the three main parachutes deployed, reducing velocity to less than 200 feet per second and guiding Orion on its final descent and splashdown.”
Which is to say “less than” roughly 60 meters per second. Somewhere else on the site I couldn’t find again they mentioned it being a touch down speed of 20 miles per hour, which is a fair bit slower at about 9 meters a second, but that’s still a car crash if you’re hitting a solid surface.
The point remains. Getting a large object like that down to a soft, non injurious, speed is not practical with just a parachute. Other techniques must be employed.
and except for the nonsensical idea that water is soft and bouncy and it is more comfortable to land into it... it is not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEmss85gCbs