space cadet n.
a trainee spaceman or spacewoman; a young astronaut
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1941
Dick Calkins
Space cadets wanted for Buck Rogers Rocket Rangers!
Buck Rogers, 25th Century, A.D. in Progress-Bulletin (Pomona, CA) 18 July 3/1 (cartoon caption) -
1943
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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.
Sunward Flight in Super Science Stories Feb. 98/1 -
1948 Thrilling Wonder Stories June 125/1 (editorial blurb for Noel Loomis’s Mr. Zytzyz Goes to Mars)
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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.
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1948
Robert A. Heinlein
bibliography
Space Cadet.
(title)
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1956 Space Academy in Authentic Science Fiction Jan. 49/1
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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.
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1972
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Ben Bova
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‘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.’
Zero Gee in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 573 -
1980
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F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
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The hatchway hissed open and all the Junior Space Cadets stopped throwing zero-gravity spitballs at each other.
For Cheddar or Worse in Asimov’s Science Fiction Jan. 98 -
1992
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John Clute
Extremely rich young space cadet Sam Houston Kelligan defies his billionaire dad…to join the eight-strong first expedition to Mars.
in Interzone (#63) Sept. 62/2 -
2004
Peter F. Hamilton
There’s no one else left, Captain Kime. You’re the last space cadet left in the galaxy. We need you.
Pandora’s Star v. 122
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2020
Gregor Hartmann
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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.
Birds of a Feather in Analog Science Fiction & Fact Jan.–Feb. 154/1
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.