High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by American manned spacecraft prior to the Space Shuttle program. It is also possible for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft to land in water, though this is only a contingency. The only example of an (unintentional) manned splashdown in Soviet history is the Soyuz 23 landing.