“This is a challenge to all of us, and the only way to meet it is to buckle down to the job!”
“Check, Dad. I think the first thing to do is let our space friends know that a group of scientists will meet their rocket and do everything possible to combat the disease from which the animals are suffering.”
“Good idea,” Mr. Swift agreed.
Tom beamed out the message over the electronic brain. By the time the meeting broke up, everyone’s spirits had risen.
60 THE RACE TO THE MOON
Plunging into the project with all-out enthusiasm, Tom began immediate preparations for the space voyage. Work was speeded up in all departments. Arv Hanson, head modelmaking engineer, promised to have a model of Tom’s improved super-repelatron ready in forty-eight hours. Meanwhile, the new spaceship was taking shape on Fearing Island.
The day after the meeting, Tom remarked to Bud as they drove home from work, “Are you game for a little rocket jaunt tomorrow?”
“Any time!” Bud chuckled. “What’s the deal?”
“I want to hop up to the space station and take some observations of the moon. We’ll need a lot more data for our big moon expedition.”
“Count me in, skipper!” Bud replied.
Tom’s space-station satellite had been built in the form of a huge wheel and sent into orbit 22,000 miles above the earth. One of its sections contained a gigantic telescope for carrying on astronomical observations above the haze of earth’s atmosphere.
Blast-off was scheduled for two o’clock the following afternoon. Instead of using his rocket ship, the Star Spear, in which he had first conquered outer space, Tom decided to ride one of the atomic cargo rockets which shuttled between the space wheel and Fearing Island.