space probe

noun

1. Aerospace. an unmanned spacecraft designed to explore the solar system and transmit data back to earth.

space probe

noun

1. a vehicle, such as a satellite, equipped to obtain scientific information, normally transmitted back to earth by radio, about the atmosphere, surface, and temperature of a planet, conditions in space, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of space probe¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Voyager 1 is one of two identical space probes.

From Los Angeles Times

They then used a laser beam to excite the droplets and mass spectral analysis to mimic what instruments on the space probe will detect.

From Science Daily

A space probe nearing its 50th birthday has stopped contacting Earth and soon communications could be ceased entirely.

From Salon

Four years later, she joined a four-day mission on the same spacecraft when it sent the Magellan robotic space probe to Venus to map the planet’s surface.

From New York Times

Before the mission ended nearly 20 years later, the Cassini-Huygens space probe managed to provide unprecedentedly detailed readings about the planet Saturn, along with its rings and various satellites.

From Salon

Related Words

• spy satellite