lander

noun

land·​er ˈlan-dər How to pronounce lander (audio)
: one that lands
especially : a space vehicle that is designed to land on a celestial body (such as the moon or a planet)

Examples of lander in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Last year, the company's uncrewed Blue Ghost moon lander became the first private spacecraft to successfully complete a mission on the lunar surface, but Alpha has now managed full mission success just three times in its seven orbital launch attempts. Josh Dinner, Space.com, 12 Mar. 2026 Astronauts will launch to the moon in an Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System rocket and then be ferried to the surface by a commercial lunar lander, such as a version of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, as part of the agency’s Artemis IV mission. Leonard David, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2026 If those flights go well, the agency hopes to launch at least one and possibly two lunar landing flights in 2028 using whichever landers are available. William Harwood, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2026 The findings, published Tuesday, March 10, by NASA’s Office of the Inspector General, noted significant schedule delays in the development for both SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System (HLS) and Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for lander

Word History

First Known Use

1859, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of lander was in 1859

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Cite this Entry

“Lander.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lander. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.

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