Full record for space v.

Definition	to go out into space
OED requirements	any evidence 1947
Earliest cite	B. I. Kahn 'Command'
Comment	Ralf Brown located, and Douglas Winston and Lawrence Watt-Evans independently submitted, a cite for the form "spacing" from a reprint of Robert Silverberg's "Tower of Glass"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1970 first magazine appearance. Jeff Prucher submitted a 1972 cite from James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Milk of Paradise". Mike Christie submitted a 1947 cite from Bernard I. Kahn's "Command". Douglas Winston dubmitted a cite from an undated Ace reprint of Robert A. Heinlein's 1956 "Time for the Stars". We would like further cites of any date.
Last modified	6 July, 2008

Citations for space v.

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1952 R. A. Heinlein Rolling Stones 49	‘Grandpa‥how would you like to be spaced?’‘No future in it. Thin stuff, vacuum. Low vitamin content.’
1952 R. A. Heinlein Rolling Stones 244	Sound effect of blow with blunt instrument, groan, and the unmistakable cycling of an air lock—Castor: ‘Sorry, folks. My assistant has just spaced Mr. Rudolf.’
1972 ‘J. Tiptree’ Milk of Paradise in H. Ellison Again, Dangerous Visions 748	His dear old chum-scout Timor's son, saved from the aliens. Your father and mine spaced together—you'll get all that when you're back.
1982 C. Yoke From Alienation to Personal Triumph in T. Staicar Feminine Eye (1982) ix. 116	He convinces Siamang to abandon Mythili on the planet's surface rather than ‘spacing’ her on the way home.
1989 Omni Aug. 4/2	Wage-earning mothers, assured of the health of the children they already have, also welcome the idea of spacing pregnancies at least two years apart.
1990 A. McCaffrey & E. Moon Sassinak (1991) 242	In the end they'd won—though they'd had to space most of the trader's original crew—and she had brought the ship in whole.
1992 V. Vinge Fire upon Deep i. vii. 44,	I was lucky they didn't space me.