astrogate v.

to navigate in space

Cf. earlier astrogating n.

  • 1941 R. A. Heinlein Common Sense in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 138/2 page image Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    My Chief Engineer assures me that the Main Converter could be started, but we have no one fitted to astrogate.

  • 1942 H. Kuttner We Guard the Black Planet! in Super Science Stories Nov. 29/2 Henry Kuttner bibliography

    I was right. Simple instructions and controls. Anybody could operate who could astrogate. And there’s plenty of fuel.

  • 1948 R. A. Heinlein Space Cadet 70 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    And you laddies expect to learn to astrogate! Better by far you should have gone to cow colleges.

  • 1953 R. A. Heinlein Starman Jones (1980) xx. 185 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    You want to raise the ship, so you want me to astrogate.

  • 1964 ‘M. Leinster’ Lord of the Uffts in Worlds of Tomorrow Feb. 12/2 page image Murray Leinster bibliography

    You said you'd astrogated a Norse space-liner six hundred light-years tail first to port after her over-drive unit switched poles.

  • 2000 L. Niven Fly-By-Night in Asimov’s Science Fiction Oct.–Nov. 39 page image Larry Niven bibliography

    When Kzinti acquired hyperdrive, they learned that most cannot astrogate through hyperspace.

  • 2007 S. Engdahl Stewards of Flame (2009) v. 385 Sylvia Louise Engdahl bibliography

    You could astrogate, Peter had said. And he would, of course.

Research requirements

antedating 1941
Earliest cite

R.A. Heinlein, 'Common Sense'
Research History
Rick Hauptmann submitted a cite from a reprint of Robert Heinlein's "Common Sense"; Mike Christie verified it in the original 1941 magazine version.

Earliest cite in the OED: 1942.

Last modified 2021-11-30 15:17:24
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.