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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury

Meteorite Deflector  
  A means of pushing aside asteroids that get in the path of your space ship.  

Probably the earliest use of the term "meteorite deflector" in science fiction, but not the first use of "deflector" (see below).

By evening Chick and Flynn were firm friends; they were talking about reaction-motors, meteorite deflectors, three-dimensional sextants, and such things with a fondness that only the two of them felt.
Technovelgy from On Board the Martian Liner, by Miles J. Breuer.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1931
Additional resources -

Another early quote, this one from Murray Leinster's The Ethical Equations (1945):

The blasters are those ravening beams of destruction which take care of recalcitrant meteorites in a spaceship's course when the deflectors can't handle them.

Compare to the deflector shields in George Lucas' Star Wars. Also, compare to the idea of a meteor-spotting radar from George O. Smith's 1943 short story Recoil.

See deflector from Islands in the Air (1929) by Morrow.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from On Board the Martian Liner
  More Ideas and Technology by Miles J. Breuer
  Tech news articles related to On Board the Martian Liner
  Tech news articles related to works by Miles J. Breuer

Meteorite Deflector-related news articles:
  - NEOShield Asteroid Deflector Project Funded By EU
  - Asteroid Deflection With DART
  - Johns Hopkins Says Asteroid Deflection Will Be Difficult
  - How Can We Block An Asteroid?

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