Definition of lander
:one that lands;
especially
:a space vehicle that is designed to land on a celestial body (such as the moon or a planet)
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Recent Examples of lander from the Web
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This is the only video that Kyger — a poet, a practicing Buddhist, briefly a Yippie, and a lifelong back-to-the-lander — ever made.
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The spacecraft dropped a lander onto Titan (humanity's first-ever landing on a moon beside our own), discovered the moon's lakes, and detected scores of important organic molecules on this weird body.
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The Viking landers of the 1970s were the only missions to Mars ever to be completely cleaned to the highest standards of planetary protection.
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The orbiter also found Beagle 2, an earlier European Space Agency lander that disappeared in 2003.
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Imagine that the Europa orbiter and subsequent lander survived the harsh conditions on Europa, only to discover that the cracks in the ice-mantle show evidence of organic life.
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Landers and Hottle will be the instructors of the course.
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No one has ever dropped a lander on the planet, since the lack of a true atmosphere provides little cushioning to slow an approaching craft.
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So understanding one of the most important secrets of our own planet relies on sending a lander to a tiny, atmosphere-less, scorching metal ball, sending the craft circling the inner solar system for several years just to stick it into orbit.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lander.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of lander
1859
Learn More about lander
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See words that rhyme with lander Britannica English: Translation of lander for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about lander
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