STEP TO THE STARS

A first space station story, much of this has been based on material in Willy Ley's and Cornelius Ryan's popular non-fiction treatments. For its theme it highlights a top-level cold war between East and West. At eighteen, hard working Jim is sent aloft to the station the United States is secretly building. In hopes of establishing a bulwark for peace through it, the civilian construction firm is under obligation to prove its worth by building it successfully. Familiar details (to those who know a little current space station theory)- gravity, the station's wheel-like shape, the reflector for sun power etc.- come to light in the process of the work; as does also a spy. Jerry, a fanatic, tells the Eastern powers or ""Combine"" about it and there is a furor until the Americans rescue some men from one of their stranded ships and friendship- paving the way for cooperative civilian management- is begun. Politics get shallow analysis here, but the scientific aspects will absorb the addicts.