space taxi n.
a small spacecraft designed for short-distance ferrying of passengers
Vehicles
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1941 Trouble on Titan in Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb. xi. 49/1
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Arthur K. Barnes
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The space taxis traveling from Hollywood on the Moon to the big bloated gambling ships detoured so their passengers could get a look at the phenomenon.
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1944 Chimera World in Planet Stories Winter 64/2
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Wilbur S. Peacock
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I never stopped to think that you might not like the job of playing space taxi with me.
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1957 Tailor-Made Killers in Fantastic Science-Fiction Aug. 94/1
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Henry Slesar
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Three weeks later, the space taxi Gremlin arrived without ceremony at the invisibly-spinning turret of one of the Wheel’s two landing stations.
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1961 Moon of Mutiny 52
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Lester del Rey
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A sausage-shaped space taxi was approaching the ship from the Station.
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1969 Living in Space viii. 185
Mitchell R. Sharpe
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Despite the weightless environment, heavy work of this type may require a small vehicle that is variously called a space tug, space taxi, or bottlesuit.
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1985 Procyon’s Promise 101
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Michael McCollum
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She followed Davidson to a berth operated by one of the three space taxi services that transported passengers and cargo between Von Braun and outlying ships.
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2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 June 1/1
Then, instead of operating its own systems, like the space shuttles, NASA would buy rides for its astronauts on these commercial space taxis.
Research requirements
antedating 1941
Earliest cite
A.K. Barnes, in Thrilling Wonder Stories
Research History
OED has a 1952 cite from Willy Ley, under "taxi".Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1944 cite from W. S. Peacock in Planet Stories.
Last modified 2023-01-26 14:12:37
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.