splashdownn.
/ˈsplaʃdaʊn/, U.S. /ˈsplæʃˌdaʊn/ The alighting of a spacecraft on the sea. Also transferred.
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society > travel > air or space travel > space flight > [noun] > a space shot or flight > slow landing without damage > landing on the sea
splashdown1961
1961 Washington Post 5 May b2 They [sc. several warships] are strung out about 60 miles apart, and their mission is to retrieve Shepard after ‘splashdown’.
1961 Washington Post 6 May a1 The perfect flight, from lift-off to splash-down, lasted only 15 minutes.
1968 Guardian 28 Dec. 8/2 From launch to splashdown the Apollo-8 mission went entirely without hitch.
1968 Guardian 23 Sept. 1/2 The splash-down appears to have been some way from the recovery fleet.
1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon xiv. 347 The Navy's weathermen had predicted acceptable splash-down conditions.
1978 Times 1 Aug. 2/2 (caption) He [sc. a member of the crew of a balloon] hears the recording of their splashdown transmission.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1961