NASA has named its new moon lander, “Altair.”
“Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila and is the twelfth brightest star in the night sky,” wrote Lauri Hansen, NASA’s Altair project manager, in an e-mail sent to Hanley this morning, a copy of which was obtained by collectSPACE.com. “The word ‘Altair’ finds its origins in Arabic and is derived from a phrase that means ‘the flying one’,” she continued.