spaceport n.
a place where spacecraft can take off and land in order to discharge and receive passengers or cargo, refuel, or undergo maintenance; a facility for this purpose
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1930
page image
Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
Jack Williamson
bibliography
The space-ports at the three great cities, were, of course, occupied or blockaded by the Tellurian fleets; and Doane was obliged to make his bases of operations the lonely craters that once had been pirate strongholds.
Birth of a New Republic in Amazing Stories Quarterly Winter 29/1
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1937
page image
John D. Clark
bibliography
Just half an hour later the rocket blasted free from the snow-covered space port near the observatory.
Minus Planet in Astounding Stories Apr. 90/1
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1951
SPACE PORT—Used in SF for several designations: as a window or observation port in a space ship, as a synonym for ‘space lock,’ as a city or building used as a port for space craft, and as the actual dock, berth or landing platform for a space ship. (See: SPACE LOCK; SPACE TERMINAL)
Dictionary of Science Fiction in Travelers of Space 26
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1951
Isaac Asimov
Anselm haut Rodric…was met by Salvor Hardin at the spaceport with all the imposing ritual of a state occasion.
Foundation Trilogy–Foundation ii. 43
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1958
Robert Silverberg
bibliography
Blast-off was held at Spacefield Seven, a wide jet-blasted area in the flatlands of New Jersey that served as the sole spaceport for the eastern half of the United States.
Invaders from Earth (1987) ix. 84
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1966
Murray Leinster
‘There’s a yellow sun that looks close.’‘It’s Delhi… It has an Earth-type planet and there may have been a colony on it once. But there’s nothing there now! There’s something wrong with it and no ship is known to have got back to its home spaceport after landing on it.’
in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Nov. 28/1
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1969
Marion Zimmer Bradley
bibliography
Or I was tied down in a bunk somewhere and outside the spaceport a planet kept getting bigger and bigger and coming at us faster and faster.
Brass Dragon (1980) iii. 54
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1970
Anne McCaffrey
bibliography
I'm here to take you to the spaceport at Rosary.
Ship who Sang (1991) i. 18
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1977
John Varley
bibliography
The singular personage named Javelin lived in her ship, the Cavorite, which was currently stationed at the Pluto spaceport—the real one, as opposed to the vast plain over Florida which was the landing facility for shuttles.
Ophiuchi Hotline (1994) 170
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1983
Marion Zimmer Bradley
bibliography
She had been born on Darkover, in Caer Donn, where the Terrans had built their first spaceport before shifting to the new Empire Headquarters here in Thendara.
Thendara House (1991) i. 9
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1987
David Brin
bibliography
Robert blamed the symptoms on the fringing fields of a lifting starship, whose keening engines could be heard all the way from the spaceport.
Uplift War 588
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1993
Kim Stanley Robinson
bibliography
All of them were crusted the same red-orange as the ground: it was an odd, thrilling site, as if they had stumbled upon a long-abandoned alien spaceport.
Red Mars iii. 97
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2005
Robert J. Sawyer
bibliography
When I was a kid, I never thought Toronto would have a spaceport. But now almost every city did, at least potentially.
Mindscan viii. 59
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2019
Yoon Ha Lee
bibliography
I’d seen views of it from orbit on the news services: a glitter-mass of silver and gold rising from the darker ruddy plateau on which the city had been built, the needle-flash of starships arcing to and from the spaceport.
Dragon Pearl iv. 32
Research requirements
antedating 1930
Earliest cite
M. Breuer & J. Williamson 'The Birth of a New Republic'
Research History
Cory Panshin submitted a cite from a 1975 reprint of C. L. Moore's 1933 "Shambleau".Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1930 cite from Miles Breuer's and Jack Williamson's "The Birth of a New Republic".
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2019 cite from Yoon Ha Lee.
Earliest cite in the OED: 1935.
Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.