Editing Reusable launch vehicle (section)

====Horizontal (winged)====
{{Main|Spaceplane}}
Single or main stages, as well as [[fly-back booster]]s can employ a horizontal landing system. These vehicles land on earth much like a plane does, but they usually do not use propellant during landing.

Examples are:
*[[Space Shuttle orbiter]] - as part of the main stage
*[[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran spaceplane]] - acted as an orbital insertion stage, however [[Polyus (spacecraft)|Polyus]] could also be used as a second stage for the [[Energia (rocket)|Energia]] launch vehicle.
*[[Venturestar]] - a project of [[NASA]]
*[[Studied Space Shuttle designs#Liquid Fly-back Booster|Space Shuttle's studied fly-back booster]]
*[[Energia (rocket)|Energia II ("Uragan")]] - an alternative [[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]] launch system concept
*[[OK-GLI]] - another [[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]] spacecraft version
*[[Liquid Fly-back Booster]] - a German concept
*[[Baikal (rocket booster)|Baikal]] - a former Russian project
*[[Reusable Booster System]] - a U.S. research project 
*[[SpaceShipTwo]] - a [[spaceplane]] for [[space tourism]] made by [[Virgin Galactic]] 
*[[SpaceShipThree]] - a [[spaceplane]] under development for [[space tourism]] made by [[Virgin Galactic]] 
*Dawn Mk-II Aurora - a [[spaceplane]] under development by [[Dawn Aerospace]] 
*[[XS-1 (spacecraft)|XS-1]] - another U.S. research project
*[[RLV-TD]] - an ongoing Indian project
*[[Reaction Engines]] [[Skylon (spacecraft)|Skylon]] [[SSTO]]
A variant is an in-air-capture tow back system, advocated by a company called EMBENTION with its FALCon project.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.embention.com/project/falcon-project/ |access-date=29 October 2020 |title=FALCon |website=embention.com |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027121718/https://www.embention.com/project/falcon-project/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Vehicles that land horizontally on a runway require wings and undercarriage. These typically consume about 9-12% of the landing vehicle mass,{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} which either reduces the payload or increases the size of the vehicle. Concepts such as [[lifting bodies]] offer some reduction in wing mass,{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} as does the [[delta wing]] shape of the [[Space Shuttle]].