orbiter

American

[awr-bi-ter] / ˈɔr bɪ tər /

noun

U.S. Aerospace.

Also called space shuttle orbiter. the crew- and payload-carrying component of the space shuttle.
a space probe designed to orbit a planetary body or moon.

orbiter British

/ ˈɔːbɪtə /

noun

a spacecraft or satellite designed to orbit a planet or other body without landing on it Compare lander

"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 orbiter

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; orbit + -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.

Neither Uranus nor Neptune has ever hosted an orbiter or long-term mission, making them the only planets in the solar system that have not been closely examined over time.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

On Sunday, the lander component of the mission will separate from the orbiter and attempt to land on the side of the Moon that faces permanently away from Earth.

From BBC • Jun. 1, 2024

The complex choreography of this mission, which involves a rover, a lander, a rocket, an orbiter and the coordination of two space agencies, is unprecedented.

From Salon • May 3, 2024

On Saturday, NASA’s Juno orbiter got a second close-up with Io, Jupiter’s third-largest moon and the most volcanic world of our solar system.

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2024

For Viking 1, the original landing site seemed, after we examined orbiter photographs and late-breaking Earth-based radar data, unacceptably risky.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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