Landings, NASA, and the Soviet Space Program

After publishing my previous post about NASA’s choice of using exclusively splashdowns landings during the space race, I realized that I had only told half the story. Part of what makes the NASA “splashdown v. land landing” story an interesting one is a comparison to their Soviet counterparts who used exclusively land landing systems. Both the Americans and the Soviets were launching and landing capsule-style spacecraft. But try as they might, the Americans just couldn’t land theirs on land. Which begs the question: what did the Soviets do that the Americans didn’t, or couldn’t? Continue to Vintage Space for a comparison of approaches to this critical mission phase.