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by daveslash 1798 days ago
It looked like they were going about 15-16mph when they hit the ground. That looked a bit rough as well. They seem to have done fine, but I can't imagine that it was comfortable.
3 comments

Bezos mentioned there's a pocket of air that forms a cushion underneath just before it hits, slowing it to 1 mph at impact. The older woman said she didn't even feel it.
Interesting. As other said, there were retro-rockets that fired. I guess I was just assuming the retro-rockets would be more pronounced - like the gentle landing that the rocket motors perform. Good to know that this wasn't as jarring as it looked.
That's roughly the speed of a Soyuz landing, which has been described as a "low speed car crash".

Retrorockets fire immediately prior to impact to cushion the blow, but it's still a hard jolt.

I watch it and slowed the clip and it seems there's a rocket boost just before touchdown, if the seats have shock absorbers they probably felt little of the touch down.
They mentioned on the stream the capsule has cushions that deploy at around 6ft. I couldn't see them on the video feed but they might be underneath the capsule.