There are parking meters for cars. Will there be parking meteors for spaceships?
 
“With space travel becoming so popular, a bar-fly at the Grinzing comes out with a sensible suggestion for a new business—manufacturing parking meteors” wrote Hy Gardner in the New York (NY) Herald Tribune on November 15, 1957. “As soon as space vehicles become common, no doubt someone will put in some parking meteors,” S.  S. Biddle wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 1969.
 
A riddle was printed in a 1978 joke book:
 
Q: Where do astronauts leave their space ships?
A: At parking meteors.
 
         
15 November 1957, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, “Hy Gardner Calling,” pg. 13, col. 1:
With space travel becoming so popular, a bar-fly at the Grinzing comes out with a sensible suggestion for a new business—manufacturing parking meteors.
 
19 December 1965, Tallahassee (FL) Democrat, “Quotes,” pg. 6, col. 5:         
Won’t it be heck if the astronauts land on the moon and have to put a dime in the parking meteor?—SHELBY FRIEDMAN.
 
11 June 1969, Orlando (FL) Evening Star, “On the Town” by Tina Yothers, pg. 14-B, col. 2:
I WISH I’D SAID THAT: As soon as space vehicles become common, no doubt someone will put in some parking meteors. (S. S. Biddle in Wall Street Journal).
 
Google Books
The Crack-a-Joke Book
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books
1978
Pg. 75:
Where do astronauts leave their space ships?
At parking meteors.
     
22 July 1984, Newsday (Long Island, NY), “Smiles,” Kidsday sec., pg. 1, col. 3:
Where do astronauts leave their spaceships?
At parking meteors.
—Krista Brancato, Melville
 
Google Books
July 1985, Boys’ Life, “Think & Grin,” pg. 81, col. 2:
Buck Rogers: Where do Martians leave their spaceships?
Flash Gordon: At parking meteors.— Paul Pruitt, Gautier, Miss.
       
26 October 1988 The GUardian (London, UK), “Geddit?,” pg. 20, col. 3:
WHERE do astronauts park their space ships?
At parking meteors.
 
Google Books
Gigantic Book of Riddles
By Lori Miller Fox and Joseph Rosenbloom
Illustrations by Sanford Hoffman
New York, NY: Sterling, Publishing Company, Inc.
1991
Pg. 152:
Where do extraterrestrials leave their ships?
At parking meteors.
 
Google Groups: uk.misc
Christmas cracker jokes.
Rod Begbie
12/27/98
On Sun, 27 Dec 1998 18:25:46 GMT,
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Matt Craddock) wrote:
>Q:Where do astronauts leave their spaceships?
>A:At parking meteors.
 
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak 08-22-03
Stan Kegel
8/22/03
(...)
Where do Martians leave their spaceships?
At parking meteors. (Joseph Rosenbloom)
 
Twitter
Cayley 🎄‏
@cayley_rb14
Where do astronauts leave their spacecrafts?
At parking meteors
6:58 PM - 9 Nov 2013
 
Twitter
Misti Koenemund‏
@CH_arM_aiN_e
Where do astronauts leave their spaceships? At parking meteors!
11:33 AM - 13 Nov 2013
 
Twitter
Samuel Hocutt Couser‏
@_samthecactus
Where do Astronauts leave their Spacecraft? At Parking Meteors. #LaffyTaffyJokes
10:20 AM - 18 Nov 2013
 
Twitter
Heather Archuletta‏
@Pillownaut
Ooh ooh, I got one I got one.
Where do astronauts leave their space shuttles?
At parking meteors!
😉
2:46 PM - 28 Jun 2015
   
Google Books
1001 Kid’s Jokes
By Kay Barnham
London, UK: Arcturus Publishing
2016
Pg. ?:
Where do aliens leave their spaceships?
At parking meteors.
 
Twitter
Lucky Score‏
@LuckyScoreNet
Where do astronauts leave their spaceships?
At parking meteors.
#Joke from #SpaceJokes in #Jokes, #Humor and #Satire
4:38 AM - 29 Dec 2017