Splashdown
Spacecraft Agency Landing date Recovery ship Miss distance
Jupiter AM-18 ( Able and Baker ) USAF May 28 , 1959 USS Kiowa 16 km ( 9.9 mi )
Mercury-Big Joe NASA September 9 , 1959 USS Strong 925 km ( 575 mi )
Mercury-Little Joe 2 NASA December 4 , 1959 USS Borie ? km
Mercury-Redstone 1A NASA December 19 , 1960 USS Valley Forge 12.9 km ( 8.0 mi )
Mercury-Redstone 2 NASA January 31 , 1961 USS Donner 209.2 km ( 130.0 mi )
Mercury-Atlas 2 NASA February 21 , 1961 USS Donner 20.9 km ( 13.0 mi )
Discoverer 25 ( Corona 9017 ) USAF June 16 , 1961 mid-air recovery missed
Mercury-Atlas 4 NASA September 13 , 1961 USS Decatur 64.4 km ( 40.0 mi )
Mercury-Atlas 5 NASA November 29 , 1961 USS Stormes ? km
Gemini 2 NASA January 19 , 1965 USS Lake Champlain 38.6 km ( 24.0 mi )
AS-201 NASA February 26 , 1966 USS Boxer ? km
AS-202 NASA August 25 , 1966 USS Hornet ? km
Gemini 2-MOL USAF November 3 , 1966 USS La Salle 11.26 km ( 7.00 mi )
Apollo 4 NASA November 9 , 1967 USS Bennington 16 km ( 9.9 mi )
Apollo 6 NASA April 4 , 1968 USS Okinawa ? km
Zond 5 USSR September 21 , 1968 USSR recovery naval vessel Borovichy and Vasiliy Golovin 105 km ( 65 mi )
Zond 8 USSR October 27 , 1970 USSR recovery ship Taman 24 km
Cosmos 1374 USSR June 4 , 1982 USSR recovery ship ? km
Cosmos 1445 USSR March 15 , 1983 USSR recovery ship ? km
Cosmos 1517 USSR December 27 , 1983 USSR recovery ship ? km
Locations -- Uncrewed spacecraft
Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by crewed American spacecraft prior to the Space Shuttle program, and is planned for use by the upcoming Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle. It is also possible for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to land in water, though this is only a contingency. The only example of an unintentional crewed splashdown in Soviet history is the Soyuz 23 landing. As the name suggests, the capsule parachutes into an ocean or other large body of water. The properties of water cushion the spacecraft enough that there is no need for a braking rocket to slow the final descent as is the case with Russian and Chinese crewed space capsules, which return to Earth over land. The American practice came in part because American launch sites are on the coastline and launch primarily over water. Russian launch sites are far inland and most early launch aborts were likely to descend on land.