Tom radioed for clearance and landed on the island’s airfield. The boys sped by car to the launching area where mechanics were checking and fueling one of the cargo rockets.
“Take-off within an hour,” a technician reported.
DESTINATION OUTPOST 47
Fifty minutes later Tom, Bud, and their crew lay strapped to acceleration couches inside the spaceship’s flight compartment. Loud-speakers blared out the countdown.
Then came the thunderous roar of blast-off. Smoke and flame billowed from the launching pad, and an instant later the gleaming rocket zoomed upward toward the ionosphere.
A red light flashed on the control panel as the first stage of the rocket motor was jettisoned by the automatic release gun. Minutes later, the second stage was cut loose, its noisy explosion followed by an awesome silence.
“Smooth trip,” Bud observed.
As the G pressure eased, the crew swung their couches upright and unstrapped their safety belts. They were now coasting upward into orbit.
“Let’s take a look at little old earth,” Tom said jokingly. He pressed a button and the inside canopy of the flight cabin slid back. All about the special glass dome was an inky void, dotted with the steely glitter of distant stars. Below, the earth was revealed as a globe floating in the darkness.
“Guess I’ll never get over the feeling that magnificent sight gives me,” Bud muttered.
For the next four hours the astronauts coasted through space at a velocity of thousands of miles per hour. Then, as the cosmic-ray altimeter flashed its red warning signal, Tom fired the steering motors to tilt the ship into orbital flight.