LANDING BURN — a free SpaceX rocket landing game
LANDING BURN is a free, browser-based rocket landing game inspired by SpaceX. Fly the full landing profile — stage separation, the boostback burn, a grid-fin descent and one nerve- wracking late landing burn — and bring the rocket home. No download, no account, and it plays on your phone. Scroll up to play; read on for how it works.
How to play
- Desktop: steer with the ← → arrow keys, fire the engine with Space (or ↑), and press X for 2× fast-forward.
- Mobile: hold the BURN button and drag the steering slider to fly.
- The goal: during the boostback burn, drag your predicted-impact marker onto the target, cut the engine and coast the arc, swing tail-first before re-entry, then burn as late as the STOP marker allows. Fuel left over is your score, so the optimal landing is the scariest one.
Three missions
- Falcon 9 → droneship. The classic upright landing on an autonomous barge at sea. About the Falcon 9 landing · what is a droneship?
- Super Heavy → chopstick catch. No legs — the launch tower's arms catch the booster in mid-air. The booster catch · what is Mechazilla?
- Starship → Mars. A belly-flop entry, the flip, and a supersonic-retropropulsion landing. The Mars landing · why Starship belly flops
How real rocket landings work
LANDING BURN is built on the real ideas behind reusable rockets. Dig into the details:
- How does SpaceX land rockets? — the suicide burn / hoverslam, explained
- How SpaceX's reusable rockets work
- SpaceX rockets explained: Falcon 9, Super Heavy & Starship
- Falcon Heavy explained · Starship vs Falcon 9
- What happens during a launch · Starship Flight 13
- What makes a rocket landing simulator feel real · the best rocket games
FAQ
- Is LANDING BURN free?
- Yes — completely free, with no account needed to play. Joining the global leaderboard just asks for a callsign and email.
- Do I need to download anything to play?
- No. It runs entirely in any modern web browser on desktop and mobile — nothing to install.
- How do I land the rocket?
- Fire the boostback burn to aim your predicted impact point at the target, cut and coast, swing tail-first before re-entry, then light one late landing burn timed with the STOP marker. Fuel left over is your score.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes — a one-button cockpit with drag-slider steering, right in the mobile browser.
