When you come down to earth how do you land

Question: When you come down to earth how do you land
- Keywords:
  landing
Asked by abdur.b to Charlie 🚀 on 23 Jun 2016.
- Charles Laing answered on 23 Jun 2016:
  
  Hi abdur.b,
  
  Astronauts nowadays get into space on the Russian Soyuz rocket and return in this capsule also.
  
  The Soyuz capsule first undocks from the International Space Station (ISS) and then starts to come closer to the Earth. At first it is travelling at 17,500 mph so in order to land safely on Earth it needs to be slowed down a lot!
  
  The spacecraft has special heat shielding to protect it as when the Earth’s atmosphere slows it down it gets very hot. Once it is closer to Earth and within a thicker atmosphere a parachute opens and allows it to be slowed down to a speed of around 20 mph.
  
  Just before the final landing ‘soft landing rockets’ fire and the spacecraft lands on Earth. Although they are called ‘soft’ the final landing has been described by astronauts as feeling like a small car crash!
  
  Once the astronauts have safely landed, rescue crews in helicopters touch down and help the astronauts get out.
  
  Charlie 🚀

Question: When you come down to earth how do you land