spacemanship n.
skill or experience in piloting a spacecraft
-
1932
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George B. Beattie
bibliography
By masterly spacemanship, the Moonmaiden captain secured the derelict and brought her safely to Earth.
‘Platinum Planets’ in Wonder Stories Aug. 256/2 -
1934
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Edward E. Smith
bibliography
So consummate had been Loring’s spacemanship that the scout did not even roll.
Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 23/1 -
1940
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L. Ron Hubbard
bibliography
Haven’t you even pored over the charts of this region so as to know what difficulties in spacemanship you might encounter?
Kilkenny Cats in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 98/2 -
1947
Edmond Hamilton
Rab Quobba and little Tammas stayed when Wilson had gone, and Hammond plied them with eager questions about the spacemanship of this age.
Star of Life in Startling Stories Jan. 25/2 -
1948
Clark Ashton Smith
I have passed several more of the asteroids—irregular fragments, little larger than meteoric stones; and all my skill of spacemanship had been taxed severely to avert collision.
Master of the Asteroid in Strange Ports of Call 13 -
1952
Insurance rates on pilots and ships required by Space Code were high, and there was always the human element of error in spacemanship.
Greenhorn in Fantastic Story Magazine Fall 112/2 -
1953
George O. Smith
Then his mind would wander a bit and Scyth would chuckle quietly over something entirely removed from spacemanship.
Troubled Star in Startling Stories Feb. 44/2 -
1962
Jack Vance
This is poor spacemanship. The sail must always be in such a position as to hold the wires taut.
Gateway to Strangeness in Amazing Stories Aug. 18/2 -
1994
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Jack Williamson
bibliography
Mr. Glengarth, I respect your spacemanship, and I know we can’t afford to quarrel. But…. Get us back into quantum wave propulsion, or tell me why not.
Ice Gods in Amazing Stories Winter 23/1 -
2010
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Michael Moorcock
bibliography
How she [sc. the Paine] had been able to sail here, how she resisted the pull of the black hole in order to perform this all-but impossible feat, nobody knew, but it spoke of superb spacemanship and an instinct for the multiverse only a few possessed.
Coming of Terraphiles, or, Pirates of Second Aether! xxviii. 334
Research requirements
antedating 1932
Earliest cite
George Beattie, in Wonder Stories
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1934 cite from E. E. Smith's "Skylark of Valeron".Fred Galvin submitted a 1953 cite from George O. Smith's "Troubled Star".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from Edmond Hamilton's "The Star of Life".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1952 cite from Harry Stine's "Greenhorn".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1949 cite from Alfred Coppel, Jr.'s "Runaway".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1953 cite from A. Bertram Chandler's "Viscous Circle".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1964 reprint of Jack Vance's 1962 "Sail 25".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1958 reprint of Clark Ashton Smith's "Master of the Asteroid"; Jesse Sheidlower verified this in the first magazine appearance in Wonder Stories, Oct. 1932, but also found an example from George Beattie in Wonder Stories from August 1932, rendering the Smith cite less relevant.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2010 cite from Michael Moorcock.
Last modified 2021-12-08 11:16:52
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entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
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