68
votes
Accepted
Late 1960's Comic Book with H shaped space ship
I remember that one! Space Family Robinson!
Here you go:
- 654
63
votes
Accepted
What's the point of Super Star Destroyers?
The same reason the Empire used inefficient mechs like the AT-AT.
The size is supposed to intimidate them, this is because the Empire no longer faces an organised military enemy like the CIS but ...
- 7,285
60
votes
Accepted
Sci-fi movie with one survivor and an organism(?) recreating his memories
This is one of the shorts from the Netflix original series Love, Death & Robots, specifically "Beyond the Aquila Rift". Per Wikipedia (spoilers):
Blue Goose's crew members Thom, Suzy, and Ray, ...
- 8,438
60
votes
Accepted
What are these symbols in the corridors of star destroyers?
3D Photogrammetry markers
At first I thought these were Scomp Link symbols, indicating the presence of a computer access port, but thought it was a bit odd that they were on blast doors and on the ...
- 27.3k
58
votes
Accepted
A man wakes up from stasis alone on a spaceship then creates the greatest story in history
This sounds like part of Allen Steele's novel Coyote, which was originally published as short stories. From the Wikipedia description:
Just three months into the journey, something goes terribly ...
- 31.7k
57
votes
Accepted
Alien captain shows his ship to one of the human delegates, but can't really impress him
Tech.
This is the original story on Reddit.
As the diplomats entered the meeting room, I found myself left outside said room, in the antechamber, with one of the humans - the pilot of their shuttle. ...
- 117k
56
votes
Did Milano or Benatar approve or comment on their namesake MCU ships?
Q. How do you feel to have a ship named after you in Guardians of the Galaxy?
Alyssa Milano: Pretty much the coolest thing EVER!
Reddit: Ask Me Anything
- 718k
51
votes
Accepted
Humourous television series. An arrogant man seems to be giving a blow by blow account of a dangerous battle. He was describing a game of Risk
This comes from the episode Meltdown of the British comedy sci fi series Red Dwarf.
RIMMER: So there we were at 2:30 in the morning; I was beginning to wish I had never come to cadet training school. ...
- 22.6k
50
votes
Accepted
What was the first instance of a fighter spacecraft
1930: The Black Star Passes, a novella by John W. Campbell, Jr. in his Arcot, Morey and Wade series, first published in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive. (The ...
- 171k
49
votes
Story where a spaceship realizes that it has been hit by an asteroid that destroyed its ability to detect being hit by asteroids
That sounds like the Grebulon ship from Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless ("Part five of the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchikers trilogy.")
The Grebulon ship is damaged by something (...
- 19.1k
48
votes
Accepted
Are there any Starfleet vessels named after non-humans?
There is the USS Gorkon (NCC-40512), named for the peace-making Klingon chancellor from Star Trek VI. It appeared in The Next Generation episode "Descent: Part I."
Also, the USS Sarek (NCC-72075) ...
- 102k
46
votes
Accepted
Golden age SF short story where spacecraft pilots are reanimated dead people?
This must be Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith. From the wikipedia summary:
Conscious humans cannot travel through space because of an effect
called the "Great Pain of Space", which ...
40
votes
Short story about a mutiny on a spaceship and a polite captain
I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's ...
- 117k
38
votes
Accepted
Is there a Canon/Legend explanation of the symbols on two vessels inside the Tantive IV?
These symbols are identified in the Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections factbook (and canonised in the Star Wars: Complete Vehicles (2018) book).
The two images in your question are the Atmosphere ...
- 718k
37
votes
Space craft takes group of people to various planets which turn out to be from their imaginations or books they have read
There is a reasonable likelihood that this is Heinlein's The Number of the Beast.
The "spacecraft" is a flying car named "Gay Deceiver", and the people comprise two couples.
They ...
36
votes
Identify a scifi movie with a talking space-ship
It's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Quoting the description from Wikipedia.
This answers your point on a man talking to a spaceship.
Eighteen months later, the United States spacecraft Discovery One is ...
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36
votes
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Robotic Spaceships have a human prisoner to maintain them
Outer Limits, new series, season 5, episode 7, The Human Operator.
Based on a short story, so you might have remembered that.
- 5,319
35
votes
Accepted
Why did we only see the N-1 starfighters in one film?
It appears to be exclusive to the Naboo and so we wouldn't see it used by the Rebels or other forces outside of the planet. The Star Wars Databank has the following to say:
NABOO N-1 STARFIGHTER
...
- 144k
34
votes
Accepted
What specifically made it so that a TIE fighter wouldn't be out near Alderaan by itself?
Your comparison to an X-Wing is not actually a great comparison. That’s like comparing a Citroën Méhari to a Hummer H1. They’re both utility vehicles, and they have a handful of other similarities, ...
- 1,860
33
votes
Short story about an astronaut who keeps meeting a version of himself from a different time, possibly by Isaac Asimov
I would guess you're remembering Lem not Lev, and this is the seventh voyage from The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem.
The protagonist Ijon Tichy is trapped in a time vortex and keeps meeting copies of ...
- 117k
33
votes
What is the origin of the "self-destruct sequence"?
Rockets have range safety systems, which you could also call self-destructs. They are typically pyrotechnic (explosive) devices arranged to do things like split open fuel tanks. The idea is that a ...
- 12k
33
votes
First "space walk" described in fiction?
There is a space walk scene in Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss. (Note that for some reason ISFDb barely notes the original 1898 serialization.)
The following quotes are from ...
- 143k
33
votes
Movie about a spacecraft that plays musical notes
Since I didn't find a question for this to be duplicate of, I'm going to post this as an answer. The movie you're looking for is the Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
...
- 143k
31
votes
Accepted
What is the identity of this Rebel starship?
It's a Braha'tok-class gunship.
They've been used by the Rebellion since the start of the war, and were seen in Star Wars Rebels (Season 3 finale), as well as Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, just ...
- 10.3k
31
votes
Accepted
Sci-fi story about man escaping from sensory deprivation prison inside the Alps
That happens in The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
In the story, people can teleport, but only if they know their exact location and destination. The prison setup keeps them from knowing their ...
- 53.7k
30
votes
Accepted
Short story where ship propulsion is done by crew walking
This is "The Long Way Home" by Fred Saberhagen.
... Then the main group will start pulling against number one, as I saw them doing a little while ago, and their ship will begin to move toward Sol. ...
- 718k
30
votes
Accepted
Why is the crew of spaceships exposed to quakes and trembles in a battle?
This is addressed in the TNG Technical Manual. The Enterprise has artificial gravity (of 1g) pulling the inhabitants downwards. When the ship experiences sudden unexpected movement, the ship is able ...
- 718k
30
votes
Accepted
Have we ever seen a captured ship incorporated permanently in the enemy's fleet?
The Kazon fleet comprises entirely of vessels taken from their former enslavers, the Trabe
NEELIX: They're Trabe vessels, actually. Everything the Kazon have, they stole from the Trabe. Mabus will ...
- 718k
29
votes
Why do Vipers use skids instead of wheels?
If you watch a Viper landing on the deck of BattleStar Galactica Ideally they come to a Hover and then lower the Landing Gear and drop down. wheels would make this action more unstable and in any case ...
- 19.7k
29
votes
Accepted
Identify a beige spaceship
This is a DY-100, the same class of ship as the Botany Bay, which carried Khan and his followers in "Space Seed" (Star Trek TOS 1x24):
- 17.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible