Launch & landing loads
Also: Dynamic Loads risk · Occupant protection
Gravity FieldsMusculoskeletalLaunch & AscentEntry, Descent & LandingLEO short-durationLEO long-durationLunar surfaceMars transit & surfacePublicClinicianResearcher
- Injury standards for spacecraft are adapted from car and military data, and the tools have underpredicted Soyuz landing injuries. ◆◆◇◇ Low · F E
- For lunar surface missions, NASA rates this risk 4×4. ◆◆◆◆ High · E
Proposed certainty (◆ High → ◇ Very low) and evidence-type tags: F flight · A analog · M model/animal · C computational · E expert/operational/standards. AI-proposed, pending reviewer confirmation. How to read the grades.
NASA risk title (verbatim)
Risk of In-Mission Injury and Performance Decrements and Long-term Health Effects due to Dynamic Loads
NASA short title: Dynamic Loads · HRP element: Human Factors and Behavioral Performance (HFBP) · Status: Active [current research ongoing] [1]
What it is
This risk covers injury from the forces of launch, landing and other dynamic phases of flight, and their effects on performance and long-term health [1].
Current evidence
- Vehicle standards come from automotive and military settings, partly tailored to spaceflight. They don’t fully cover spaceflight’s unique conditions [1].
- Current analysis tools are used outside the conditions they were validated for, and they have underpredicted injuries in Soyuz landings [1].
- Injury from standing during dynamic phases is poorly documented. Injury reference values haven’t been validated because there are few load and injury data from Soyuz landings [1].
- Spaceflight weakens bones and muscles, so this risk matters more on longer missions [1].
NASA’s risk posture
NASA scores each risk for each design reference mission (DRM) as likelihood × consequence (LxC). Both run from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) on the HSRB’s 5×5 matrix [1][3]. Each score comes with a disposition, such as “Accepted”, “Requires Characterization” or “Requires Mitigation”. These ratings were last approved by NASA’s Human System Risk Board (HSRB) in 12/2023 [1].
| Mission | Duration | In-mission (operations) | Long-term health |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEO | Short (under 30 d) | 4x3 · Accepted with Optimization | 3x2 · Accepted |
| LEO | Long (30 d–1 yr) | 4x3 · Accepted with Optimization | 3x2 · Accepted |
| Lunar orbit | Short | 4x3 · Accepted with Optimization | 3x2 · Accepted with Optimization |
| Lunar orbit | Long | 4x3 · Requires Mitigation | 3x2 · Requires Mitigation |
| Lunar orbit + surface | Short | 4x4 · Accepted with Optimization | 3x4 · Accepted with Optimization |
| Lunar orbit + surface | Long | 4x4 · Requires Mitigation | 4x4 · Requires Mitigation |
| Mars preparatory | Under 1 yr | 4x3 · Requires Mitigation | 3x2 · Requires Mitigation |
| Mars planetary | 730–1,224 d | 4x4 · Requires Mitigation | 4x4 · Requires Mitigation |
Copied from the Human Research Roadmap on 2026-10-14. Ratings change. Check the live record before citing.
Open knowledge gaps
NASA lists 4 knowledge gaps for this risk, 4 of them open as of 2026-10-14 [1]. Each gap ID links to its page on the Human Research Roadmap (HRR).
Show NASA’s gap list (verbatim)
| Gap | NASA gap statement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| DL-101 | We do not understand the risk of injury associated with crewed vehicle landings and how this risk relates to the desired acceptable risk. | Open |
| DL-201 | We do not know how load dynamics and sex differences affect injury risk in spaceflight conditions and do not have adequate injury assessment reference values (IARVs) to mitigate the increased risk of injury to the crew. | Open |
| DL-301 | We do not have an identified, validated and standardized approach for vehicle instrumentation and biodynamic data collection, and predictive analytic biodynamic modeling that would allow for specific risk injury prediction by mission-phase, crew functionality post-landing, and vehicle design. | Open |
| DL-401 | We do not know the extent to which multiple spaceflight hazards (e.g., spaceflight deconditioning, bone loss, radiation exposure, altered gravity) may interact to synergistically decrease injury tolerance for off-nominal dynamic landing loads, increasing risk to crew’s performance in mission-completing actions immediately after landing. | Open |
See also Open questions.
Active countermeasure research
- New occupant-protection standards. NASA’s Occupant Protection Team is developing them with industry, academia and other agencies, using data mining, testing, simulation and expert opinion [1].
- Open gaps. These cover acceptable landing injury risk, sex differences, vehicle instrumentation and predictive models, and how multiple hazards combine to lower injury tolerance (DL-101 to DL-401) [1].
Project-level detail, including status, investigators and results, is in the NASA Task Book and on each HRR gap page.
Clinical articles
For practical, clinic-facing guidance, see:
Evidence profile
- Overall certainty
- ◆◆◇◇ Low (proposed)
- Evidence types
- F · Flight dataE · Expert / operational / standards
- Literature through
- 2026-10-14
- NASA source
- Human Research Roadmap risk page (last published 05/13/25; read 2026-10-14)
Requirements referenced 1
| Requirement | Title | Plain-language meaning |
|---|---|---|
| [V2 12045] | Nominal Timely Egress | Crew egress after landing must be expedited to protect crew health. |
IDs as published in NASA-STD-3001 Vol. 1 Rev C (2023-09-15) and NASA-STD-3001 Vol. 2 Rev F (2026-07-14). NASA-STD-3001 binds NASA programs; it is not a regulation for commercial flights. Paraphrased. Standards quick reference.
References 3
- NASA Human Research Roadmap. Risk record: “Risk of In-Mission Injury and Performance Decrements and Long-term Health Effects due to Dynamic Loads”. Accessed 2026-10-14. humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Risks/?i=167 NASA E
- NASA Human Research Program. Evidence report for the Dynamic Loads risk (Rev A, approved September 15, 2021). humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/evidence/reports/OP%20Dynamic%… NASA E
- Antonsen EL, et al. Updates to the NASA human system risk management process for space exploration. NPJ Microgravity. 2023;9:72. doi:10.1038/s41526-023-00305-z PMID:37679359 Peer-reviewed E
Machine-checked on 2026-10-14: each URL resolved, each DOI's title/journal/year matched via Crossref, and claims were checked against the source text (abstract or full NASA page). Human verification against full text is still required before review. NASA documents are U.S. Government works (public domain) and are summarized with attribution; journal articles are summarized, not reproduced.
Article info
- Authors
- Pending (AI-assisted draft)
- Reviewer
- Pending review
- Last reviewed
- Pending review
- Literature through
- 2026-10-14
- AI-assisted
- Yes (disclosed)
- COI
- Pending
- License
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Use
- Educational only · Disclaimer
- Cite this version
- Pending first edition