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"The thing that I'm most interested in at the moment is the so-called Infinite Energy solution - the possibility of finding new ways of tapping into virtually limitless sources of energy."
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![]() This seems like an early use of this term. The idea is that craft made for space need additional support if landing on a planetary surface, due to the gravity.
E.E. 'Doc' Smith uses the same term in Triplanetary (1934):
Again in Hotel Cosmos (1938) by Raymond Z. Gallun:
Poul Anderson liked it; he put it in The Corkscrew of Space (1956):
There was one arriving now, descending on a tail of fire some four miles away—which put it almost on the horizon. It was a bright gleam against the dark-blue sky, under the shrunken sun. As he watched, it entered its cradle...
Randall Garrett used a variant in Needler in 1957, with a nice illustration by Emsh:
A variation of the same expression, from They Never Came Back (1941) by Fritz Leiber:
Bart Harlan, standing on the cat-walk that circled the upper rim of the docking-cradle, did not immediately answer the shouted question. He clung to the thin hand rail, bracing himself against the sheets of rain which drove across the almost deserted landing field, and stared wearily down into the shadowy interior of the cradle...
Compare to the splashdown from From the Earth to the Moon (1867) by Jules Verne,
landing arms from Creatures of the Comet (1931) by Edmond Hamilton,
landing stage from Atomic Fire (1931) by Raymond Z. Gallun,
landing on an asteroid from Murder on the Asteroid (1933) by Eando Binder,
docking-cradle from They Never Came Back (1941) by Fritz Leiber,
landing-grid from Sand Doom (1955) by Murray Leinster,
landing pit from The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester and
launching cradle from Needler (1957) by Gordon Randall Garrett.
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