splashdown
the landing of a space vehicle in a body of water, especially the ocean: The footage of Apollo 11's splashdown was seen by millions across the United States.
the exact place where such a landing is made: The splashdown is expected to be American Samoa.
the time of such a landing: The splashdown was 2:04 p.m.
(of a spacecraft or an astronaut) to land in a body of water, especially the ocean: The crew of Expedition 55 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean exactly as predicted at 10:43 this morning.
Origin of splashdown
1Words Nearby splashdown
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use splashdown in a sentence
It also includes the procedure for retrieving the capsule and its crew and cargo after splashdown.
NASA’s Artemis I mission sets the stage for our return to the moon | Lisa Grossman | August 26, 2022 | Science NewsAs with a handful of previous missions that have experimented with first-stage reuse, the Electron booster made a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Rocket Report: Clipper to fly on used Falcon boosters, BE-4 may slip further | Eric Berger | November 19, 2021 | Ars TechnicaThe company has been implementing a new atmospheric reentry and ocean splashdown process that uses a parachute to slow the booster’s descent, but the ultimate goal is to catch it in the air using a helicopter.
Peter Beck on Rocket Lab’s public listing debut, space SPACs and the Neutron rocket | Aria Alamalhodaei | August 25, 2021 | TechCrunchSpaceX said that the flight “will be carefully monitored at every step by SpaceX mission control” and will end in a splashdown off the Florida coast.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX announces a spaceflight intended to raise money for St. Jude hospital | Christian Davenport | February 1, 2021 | Washington PostMarci jumped a foot out of the water, and her splashdown sent watery ripples rebounding off the cavern walls.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town | Cory Doctorow
British Dictionary definitions for splashdown
/ (ˈsplæʃˌdaʊn) /
the controlled landing of a spacecraft on water at the end of a space flight
the time scheduled for this event
(intr, adverb) (of a spacecraft) to make a splashdown
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with splashdown
Land in water, as in The spacecraft splashed down within a few hundred yards of the pickup point. The splash in this idiom alludes to the impact of a solid body on water. [c. 1960]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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