a small powerful spacecraft designed for short-distance tasks, such as maneuvering other vessels, pulling freight ships, etc.
They would clamp his little boat onto a huge-engined space tug-boat.]
His ship, a stubby, powerful space-tug with an oversized air-lock, was a used job.
Reeking with oil and dressed in the rags of an outlaw space-tug’s crew, he passed into the dismal underworld as one of its own creatures.
Martiacast VXV calling Vanguard. Can now observe theStarider. You've permission to enter the sphere of Mars to make contact with vessel. Are ordering out space tugs.
‘Also, Commander,’ the Earthman added, ‘I'm expecting to sight a small space tug, the Goodby Jane. Unarmed, but very fast.’
A space tug or space crane…would then herd the modules together, docking them to form the Kosmograd.
The message from Earth had taken six hours to reach the space-tug Goliath, here beyond the orbit of Neptune…
antedating 1939
E. E. Smith, in Astounding
OED has a single quote from 1961, supporting a broader sense.
Last modified 2021-08-18 14:11:01
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.