The giant ship lurched off the blast-off platform a few feet, the
exhaust of the powerful rockets deflected against the concrete surface.
Then, poised delicately on the roaring rockets, the mighty ship picked
up speed and began to accelerate through the atmosphere.

Pushed deep in his acceleration chair in front of the control board,
unable to move because of the tremendous pressure against his body, Tom
Corbett thought about his new adventure. And as the ship hurtled into
the black velvet depths of space, he wondered what the future held for
him as he and his unit mates began a new adventure among the stars.




CHAPTER 3


"Control deck to power deck, check in!" Tom's voice crackled over the
power-deck loud-speaker and Astro snapped to quick attention.

"Power deck, aye!" replied the giant Venusian into the intercom
microphone. "What's up?"

"Stand by for course change," said Tom. "Roger's picked up a meteor on
the radar scanner and--"

"Here's the course change," Roger's voice broke in over the intercom.
"Three degrees up on the plane of the ecliptic and five degrees
starboard!"