space cadet n.

a trainee spaceman or spacewoman; a young astronaut

  • 1941 D. Calkins Buck Rogers, 25th Century, A.D. in Progress-Bulletin (Pomona, CA) 18 July ii. 3/1 (cartoon caption) Dick Calkins

    Space cadets wanted for Buck Rogers Rocket Rangers!

  • 1943 A. L. Zagat Sunward Flight in Super Science Stories Feb. 98/1 page image Arthur Leo Zagat bibliography

    That hatch may open again, however, at your word, to return you to Earth. I rest it on your honor as space cadets that if it should, what I say to you now will remain within the hull of the Aldebaran.

  • 1948 Thrilling Wonder Stories June 125/1 (editorial blurb for Noel Loomis’s Mr. Zytzyz Goes to Mars) page image

    Mr. Zytztz, however, is one of several score of plant men, the only form of life discovered on Mars when the first expedition gets there. He is befriended by a young Space Cadet, Healey, and the attachment between these two utterly different forms of life with utterly different origins, becomes ultimately one of the epics of early space travel.

  • 1948 R. A. Heinlein (title) Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    Space Cadet.

  • 1956 Space Academy in Authentic Science Fiction Jan. 49/1 page image

    Above all, space cadets must be physically fit. A sick man, or even a weak man, might crack up under the rigors of space flight.

  • 1972 B. Bova Zero Gee in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 573 page image Ben Bova bibliography

    ‘How does an Air Force captain get into the space cadets?’ ‘The same way everything happens—you’re in a certain place at a certain time. They told me I was going to be an astronaut.’

  • 1980 F. G. MacIntyre For Cheddar or Worse in Asimov’s Science Fiction Jan. 98 page image F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre bibliography

    The hatchway hissed open and all the Junior Space Cadets stopped throwing zero-gravity spitballs at each other.

  • 1992 J. Clute in Interzone (#63) Sept. 62/2 page image John Clute

    Extremely rich young space cadet Sam Houston Kelligan defies his billionaire dad…to join the eight-strong first expedition to Mars.

  • 2004 P. F. Hamilton Pandora’s Star v. 122 Peter F. Hamilton

    There’s no one else left, Captain Kime. You’re the last space cadet left in the galaxy. We need you.

  • 2020 G. Hartmann Birds of a Feather in Analog Science Fiction & Fact Jan.–Feb. 154/1 Gregor Hartmann bibliography

    Refusing to give up, Frank had found an end run around the SA veto: the Rocket Club, an association of grad-student space cadets in the Aerospace Department.


Research requirements

antedating 1943

Earliest cite

A. L. Zagat

Research History

Note that we are not interested in the figurative sense 'a flaky person'.

Dan Tilque and Larry Headlund pointed out that Heinlein's "Space Cadet" was published in 1948. Rick Hauptmann provided a cite from the title of the first edition. This was published in September, 1948.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1948 cite from an editorial blurb in Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1948.
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1943 cite from Arthur Leo Zagat in Super Science Stories.

The earliest cite in OED2 had been from 1952.

Last modified 2025-01-27 15:31:33
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.