astronavigator n.

= astrogator n.

  • 1933 D. D. Sharp Messenger from Space in Wonder Stories Jan. 630/1 page image D. D. Sharp bibliography

    While Grinstead commanded the ship himself, he had been fortunate enough in securing Captain Halsey, the noted astro-navigator, for his first mate.

  • 1941 E. F. Russell Jay Score in Astounding Science-Fiction May 95/1 page image Eric Frank Russell bibliography

    The stunt was a theoretical one frequently debated by mathematicians and astro-navigators, and often used by writers in stories. But this time it was to be the real thing. The idea is to build up all the velocity that can be got, and at the same time to angle into the path of an elongated elliptical orbit resembling that of a comet. In theory, the vessel might then skim the Sun so fast that it would swing like a pendulum far out to the opposite side of the orbit whence it had come.

  • 1942 R. M. Williams Planet of the Gods in Amazing Stories Dec. 163/2 page image Robert Moore Williams bibliography

    He looked at the astro-navigator. Ron Val wasn’t angry. Nor was he mutinous. He wasn’t challenging authority. He was just scared.

  • 1960 M. Clifton Eight Keys to Eden (1965) 22 Mark Clifton bibliography

    Sure, it was only a three-man crew—himself, a flight engineer, an astro-navigator.

  • 1979 L. Iribarne tr. S. LemTales of Pirx the Pilot (1990) 198 Stanisław Lem bibliography

    Unable to sleep, he opened a volume of Irving’s memoirs—of astronavigator fame—and read until his eyes began to burn.

  • 2000 H. Bell Navohar 156 Hilari Bell bibliography

    But if she learned little more about anomaly l, she did find out that Ravi, as well as an astronavigator and a tailor, was a practicing Yogi.

  • 2001 D. Abnett Xenos 259 Dan Abnett bibliography

    The admiral’s astronavigators have finished plotting the course of the heretic fleet.

  • 2003 P. David No Limits 202 Peter David bibliography

    Amazon’s standard controls lacked the fourth-dimensional modeling of the holograph, but McHenry might be the best astronavigator in Starfleet.

  • 2015 J. Johnson Terrans 70 page image Jean Johnson bibliography

    ‘How far off are we?’ Robert asked Ayinda. ‘Just a moment, just a moment…seven light-seconds. We overshot our mark,’ the astronavigator told him.


Research requirements

antedating 1933

Earliest cite

D. D. Sharp, in Wonder Stories

Research History
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2003 cite from Peter David's "No Limits".
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2001 cite from Dan Abnett's "Xenos".
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2000 cite from Hilari Bell's "Navohar"
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a cite from a 1990 reprint of a 1979 translation by Louis Iribarne of Stanislaw Lem's "Tales of Pirx the Pilot"
Douglas Winston submitted a 1965 cite for "astro-navigator" from an Eric Frank Russell collection "Men, Martians and Machines"; which Mike Christie verified in its 1941 first publication in "Jay Score".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a Project Gutenberg etext of Robert Moore Williams' "Planet of the Gods" (original print version from Amazing Stories, December 1942); Jesse Sheidlower verified it in the original publication.

The OED has astro-navigator (1949), but only in the sense of a an air pilot, or automatic air-piloting machine, using the observation of the stars for calculation of position: we are looking for one who plots positions and calculates courses in space.

Last modified 2022-01-21 16:19:34
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.