lander

American  

[lan-der] / ˈlæn dər /

noun

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

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lander British  

/ ˈlændə /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of lander

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

Example Sentences

Odysseus touched down in the Malapert A crater, some 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole, becoming the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon.

From MarketWatch

The center was also designing and testing mock-ups of a lunar lander, which Armstrong — now the center’s namesake — later used to practice landing on the moon while still here on Earth.

From Los Angeles Times

The astronauts will require a second vehicle to descend to the moon's surface, a lunar lander that remains under development by rival space companies owned by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

From Barron's

Odysseus was the first privately funded lander to make a soft landing on the lunar surface.

From Barron's

Nasa has picked two rival commercial landers for Artemis: SpaceX's Starship and a craft designed by Jeff Bezos's company Blue Origin, and will decide closer to the time which vehicles fly which missions.

From BBC