飞船
fēi chuán · HSK 6
spaceship
🚀 飞 (fly) + 船 (boat) = flying boat = airship/spaceship
船 chuán is the everyday word for boat or ship. Stick 飞 fēi (fly) in front and the compound literally reads flying-boat, which Chinese reuses for both airships and spacecraft.
飞 — pictograph of a bird in flight (wings + body)
飞 is a pictograph originally depicting a bird soaring with outstretched wings, with the upper stroke suggesting the head and the curved strokes representing wings and tail. The traditional form 飛 shows the wings more clearly; 飞 is the simplified version retaining just one wing-like element. Its core meaning 'to fly' has stayed stable throughout history.
船 — boat radical 舟 + 㕣 (phonetic)
船 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 舟 depicts a boat and gives the meaning, while the right side 㕣 originally suggested the sound. Together they refer to a ship or vessel, a meaning that has stayed stable since early seal script.