In the final landing phase, the spacecraft will hover on its jets about 65 feet above the surface and unreel the rover on three Kevlar cables in what NASA engineers call a "sky crane, " lowering it to the ground at less than two miles per hour.

WSJ: Mars Mission Seeks a Happy Landing

Of this most recent spate of accidents, where many aboard have been able to walk away from the wreckage, it is worth noting that they occurred mostly in the landing phase, at relatively low altitude and speed and with the aircraft in question carrying only limited amounts of fuel.

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"Together, we proved that a human in freefall can break the speed of sound returning from near space, going through a transonic phase and landing safely on the ground, " said Dr Jonathan Clark, a former space shuttle flight surgeon and the Red Bull Stratos medical director.

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