lander

American

[lan-der] / ˈlæn dər /

noun

a space probe designed to land on a planet or other solid celestial body.

lander British

/ ˈlændə /

noun

a spacecraft designed to land on a planet or other body Compare orbiter

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of lander

First recorded in 1960–65; land + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

lander

The Falcon 9 launched in January 2025 carrying Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander, a private mission that made a soft landing on the Moon.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

The Nova-C lander for the mission is named Trinity.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

Blue Origin is moving its Blue Moon MK1 lander through integrated testing ahead of its planned lunar delivery mission.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The lunar lander will be placed in orbit first, where it will wait for the astronauts arriving aboard Orion after launching on SLS.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026

The little fella was only two meters from the lander.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023