How to play SHIP40
SHIP40 is a free rocket landing game that runs in your browser. A reusable rocket is coming home from a mission and is already falling toward the ground. You have 40 seconds and a limited tank of fuel to bring it down gently, upright, on the landing pad.
Controls
- Space or Up arrow: fire the main engine.
- Left / Right arrows: tilt the rocket.
- P or Esc: pause and resume. M: sound on/off.
- R: fly again after a mission ends.
- On phones and tablets, use the on-screen Left, Right and Thrust buttons. You can hold Thrust and tilt at the same time.
The physics
Gravity pulls the rocket down at 9.81 m/s². The engine pushes along the direction the rocket's nose points, so tilting while thrusting moves you sideways. Momentum carries over: turning the rocket does not change where it is already heading. Fuel only burns while the engine fires.
What counts as a landing
- Both landing legs touch down on the pad.
- Vertical speed of 5 m/s or less.
- Horizontal speed of 2 m/s or less.
- Tilted no more than 8° from upright.
- All before the 40-second clock runs out.
Scoring
A successful landing earns 4,000 points, plus up to 2,000 for precision (landing near the centre, perfectly upright), 1,500 for fuel left in the tank, 1,500 for a soft touchdown and 1,000 for time to spare. The maximum is 10,000. Your best score is saved on this device only.
Tips
- Fix sideways drift early, while you are high up, then descend straight down.
- Tap the rotate keys for small corrections; hold them for big turns.
- Short bursts of thrust near the ground give you finer control than holding it down.