space legs n.

When I had gained my space legs sufficiently to leave the cushioned protection of my bunk, I shuffled along the spiral tube which terminated in the glittering fascination of the control room.

Someone proposed that, as an inducement to passengers in the future, one stop in mid-space should be made on every voyage, to show everybody what it was really like to get ‘space-legs.’

Lazarus saw from his face that it was necessary to the man’s morale. ‘All right,’ he capitulated, ‘if you can handle yourself under two g’s—’ ‘I’ve got space legs. What kind of sandwiches?’

One trip on the casually meandering Upsydaisy had given me my space legs and got me used to living in suspense over umpteen million miles of nothing, but I reckoned it’d take me another century or two to get accustomed to the mad bull take-offs and landings of these Flettner craft.

Think I’m incompetent, do you? Think I’m doddering on the edge of the grave, do you? Think I’m a bumble-fingered pen-pusher that’s lost his space-legs, do you? Well, I’m as good as I ever was—and better.

A car door slammed and a big man with a florid face got out and stalked toward him, looking angry. ‘What the hell’s the matter with you, fella?’ he drawled. ‘You soused? Man, you’ve really got a load.’ Hogey got up doggedly, shaking his head to clear it. ‘Space legs,’ he prevaricated. ‘Got space legs. Can’t stand the gravity.’

[describing an LSD trip] I was standing on the rim of a planet, alone. I could hear the fast rushing sounds of the planets rotating in space. Then I was among them, and I was aware that a certain skill was necessary to handle this new means of transportation. The image of myself standing in space and trying to get my 'sea legs' or my 'space legs' amused me. I wondered who had been there before me and whether I could return to earth. The solitude distressed me, so I returned to my starting point.

Woman and child were given a spartan room in the low orbit Rockwell Station. [...] Five days of concentrated effort to put her space legs together finally hit Lisa Maria with the incredible gut realization that she was forever free of Nick, her great love, the man who had made a woman of her. Suddenly there was no way to stop grinning.

Someone put her hands under him and pushed hard. He went sailing, without a bit of spin, in a smooth arc that landed him right beside Dr. Bethany Oakes. Good shooting, he thought as the small woman swung him around to face the audience. ‘Don't worry, Saul,’ Cruz whispered to him. ‘You’ll get your space legs yet. Your problem is you’ve spent too much time in that damned wheel.’

Rand already had his ‘space legs,’ could handle himself in free-fall—but all his experience was indoors, inside pressurized cubics. Everyone said that to really feel space, it was necessary to spend a lot of hours EVA.

You could not even say Merrimack rocked. Sway, she might, but having done so, she felt no compulsion to fall back and cant the other way. She swayed and she kept going, drew up short against a damper and left one with an unsettled wanting to tip back upright. Space legs needed acquiring. New hands spent much time in the head. Augustus roused himself up on one elbow. ‘I am not space sick. I have a lot on my mind.’

Akiya Deyir came to the front of the room and stood before the screens, raising his hands for quiet. ‘I’ve just heard from Hirin Sagal, and we are ready for takeoff. I suggest you all find a seat. It should be a smooth liftoff but just in case, you might not want to stand until you’ve gotten your space legs.’ Some of the humans laughed nervously, and Akiya Deyir added, ‘Don’t worry. We are very much looking forward to bringing you to our home.’