space dock n.

a spaceport or space station, esp. one where a spaceship can undergo repair or take on supplies

  • 1938 R. Z. Gallun Hotel Cosmos in Astounding Science-Fiction July 142/2 page image Raymond Z. Gallun bibliography

    Space Liner Ardis coming in from Planet Five of Antares. Landing at 10:19 p.m. in fourth cradle of Civic Space Docks.

  • 1945 H. Walton Schedule in Astounding Science-Fiction June 55/2 page image Harry Walton bibliography

    Jimmy Rodgers swallowed dryly. The bustling scene all around him, the hurrying foot traffic of a great space dock, the fussy activity of automatic unloaders, all seemed suddenly as unreal and absurd as the news Matthews had brought him—alive, moving, noisy, but not actual, like a stereograph sound film.

  • 1946 M. W. Wellman The Solar Invasion in Startling Stories Fall 31/2 page image Manly Wade Wellman bibliography

    ‘Too late,’ groaned Otho. ‘I see it shooting toward the space-docks—no, the dock warrens beyond!’ It was true. They had followed the fugitive into Earth’s atmosphere, tailed it down to New York. And the little craft was heading for the thick of the shabby, unsavory district beyond the docks, where all races and types of men, all of them raffish and some dangerous, lived in furtive and sometimes lawless squalor.

  • 1947 ‘H. Hastings’ The Big Night in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 43/1 page image Henry Kuttner bibliography

    What were you doing around the space-docks?

  • 1972 U. K. Le Guin The Word for World is Forest in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 37 Ursula K. Le Guin

    He saw the golden tower of the space-dock at Central.

  • 1993 D. Carey Great Starship Race i. 36 Diane Carey

    They're in spacedock or box docks, being mechanically deprived of hardware advantages.

  • 2002 D. Weber Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington in Changer of Worlds 42 David Weber

    As Captain Bachfisch’s after-dinner conversation with Commander Layson had suggested, much of War Maiden’s crew was new to the ship, for the cruiser had just emerged from an extensive overhaul period, and the Bureau of Personnel had raided her pre-overhaul crew ruthlessly while she was laid up in space dock.

Research requirements

antedating 1938
Earliest cite

Raymond Z. Gallun, 'Hotel Cosmos'
Research History
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a reprint of Ursula Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest"; Jeff Prucher verified it in the 1972 first printing.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from an undated reprint of Harry Walton's "Schedule"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1945 first appearance.
Ralf Brown located a cite in an etext of David Weber's "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington", and Malcolm Farmer submitted a 2002 cite from a printed copy.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from "The Big Night" by Hudson Hastings [pseudonym of Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore]
Fred Galvin submitted a 1946 cite from "The Solar Invasion" by Manly Wade Wellman.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1978 reprint of Raymond Z. Gallun's "Hotel Cosmos"which Mike Christie verified in its first print publication (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1938)

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.