Landing and recovery

Touching down is not one pass-or-fail check. Every part on your ship survives a landing on its own terms, the ground is never quite flat, and only a ship that comes to rest in one piece can be brought home for its money back.

Every part has its own landing speed

A hard landing is over in a heartbeat, so it is judged nothing like the g-forces of a hard ascent or a steep turn. Instead, every part carries its own IMPACT figure on its info card: the closing speed that part can take when it is the one that meets the ground. Only the part that actually strikes is judged, so what matters is what your ship is standing on, not what it is made of everywhere else. An Engine takes 14 m/s on its bell before it gives way, a Heat Shield takes 28 m/s on its dish, and an LT-1 Landing Strut takes 30 m/s through its foot. A rocket set down on its engine bell is far more fragile than the same rocket set down on legs.

Legs soak up the landing

A landing strut carries the ship on a sprung, damped piston that swings out when staged or tapped. It takes the weight over its own travel before the leg ever bottoms out onto the hard ground beneath it, which is what turns a landing no bare hull would survive into one every part walks away from. The card's SUSPENSION line names how stiff and how damped that piston is; a heavier lander wants the sturdier LT-2 Landing Strut, rated to 45 m/s at its foot, over the lighter LT-1.

A rocket standing on three deployed landing legs beside its launch pad, upright on flat ground. — Legs carry the ship over their own travel, well clear of the hull.

Parachutes and drogues

A Parachute opens over a second and a half once staged or tapped in the air, and drags the ship down through a canopy far larger than the ship itself: its info card's PARACHUTE AREA row reads 400 m², against the Drogue Chute's 20 m². That size difference is the point of flying two: a drogue is small enough to survive opening at high speed, its PARACHUTE MAX Q row allows far more dynamic pressure than the main chute's, so it opens first to slow a fast descent, and the bigger canopy follows once the air is safe for it. Stage a drogue to deploy high and a main chute to open lower, and the ship arrives far slower than either canopy could manage alone. A spent chute cannot be reopened, so save the cut for after you are down.

The ground has hills, and a ship can lean or fall

The ground under your ship is rarely flat. A landing on a slope makes every corner of your ship meet the ground at a different depth, and the game leans the ship to match rather than snapping it upright. Whether it holds that lean or goes over depends on the ship's own shape: a bare stack has a narrow footprint and little to hold it, while legs push the centre of mass down and spread the footprint wide. A legged lander holds a slope up to 31°, the ground's own grip limit, before it slides. Past its own limit, a ship topples, and it slams down hardest at whichever end the fall swings furthest, which is judged on that part's own impact speed just like any other landing.

A rocket on landing legs standing upright on a sloped hillside, the horizon tilted under it. — Standing on a slope, leaning to match the ground.

The same rocket toppled onto its side on flat ground next to the launch pad. — Past its limit, the ship goes over.

Recovering a ship

The flight menu's ⬇ RECOVER chip only appears once your ship is launched, alive, and standing still on the ground. It never shows while the ship is still falling or drifting. Confirming it brings the ship home to the hangar and refunds every part still aboard in credits; the flight ends there. Anything already gone, a dropped stage, a part torn off in a hard strike, is not aboard, so it pays nothing, and a ship that never comes to rest in one piece cannot be recovered at all. See Recover a landed ship for the steps.

The flight menu with the green RECOVER chip and the red TERMINATE chip, RECOVER available because the ship is standing still. — RECOVER is on offer the moment the ship settles.

A wreck

A ship that loses its command part before it comes to rest never gets the chance: the flight ends there, banner reading CRASHED, and nothing comes back. That is the one outcome recovery can never reach, and the reason it pays to bring a fragile part down on legs instead of its own bell.