Fact1: son return to Earth, Fact2: giant spaceship has been built in nearby orbit, Fact3: Merritt command new spaceship now being sent to Mars instead of Moon, Fact4: general 's undiagnosed and growing space fatigue is beginning to affect seriously judgement, Fact5: Fodor 's body After religious service in is cast space
Output: Mankind has achieved space flight capability and built The Wheel space station in orbit 1,075 miles above Earth. It is commanded by its designer, Colonel Samuel T. Merritt Walter Brooke. His son, Captain Barney Eric Fleming, having been aboard for a year, wants to return to Earth. A giant spaceship has been built in a nearby orbit, and an Earth inspector arrives aboard the station with new orders: Merritt is being promoted to general and will command the new spaceship, now being sent to Mars instead of the Moon. As General Merritt considers his crew of three enlisted men and one officer, his close friend, Sgt. Mahoney Mickey Shaughnessy volunteers. The general turns him down for being 20 years too old. Hearing that Mars is the new destination, Barney Merritt volunteers to be the second officer. Right after the crew watches a TV broadcast from their family and friends, the mission blasts off for the Red Planet. The generals undiagnosed and growing space fatigue is beginning to seriously affect his judgement: Reading his Bible frequently, he has doubts about the righteousness of the mission. After launch, Sgt. Mahoney is discovered to be a stowaway, having hidden in a crew spacesuit. Their piloting radar antenna later fails, and two crewmen go outside to make repairs. They manage to get it working just as their monitors show a glowing planetoid, 20 times larger than their spaceship, coming at them from astern. The general fires the engines, barely managing to avoid a collision, but the planetoids fastorbiting debris punctures Sgt. Fodor Ross Martins spacesuit, killing him instantly. After a religious service in space, Fodors body is cast adrift into the void. Eight months later, the general is becoming increasingly mentally unbalanced, focusing on Sgt. Fodors loss as Gods judgement. On the Mars landing approach, he attempts to crash their spaceship, now convinced the mission violates the laws of God. Barney wrests control away from his father, landing the large flying wing gliderrocket safely. Later, as the crew takes their first steps on the Red Planet, they look up and see water pouring down from the now vertical return rocket. Barney quickly discovers the leak is sabotage caused by his father, who threatens his son with a.45 automatic. The two struggle and the pistol discharges, killing the general. Sgt. Mahoney, who observed only the last stages of the struggle, wants Barney confined under arrest with the threat of court martial, but cooler heads prevail; Barney becomes the ranking officer. Mars proves to be inhospitable, and they struggle to survive with their decreased water supply. Earths correct orbital position for a return trip is one year away. While glumly celebrating their first Christmas on Mars, a sudden snowstorm blows in, allowing them to replenish their water supply. As their launch window arrives, they hear low rumbling sounds, then see rocks falling, and feel the ground shake violently. The ground level shifts during this violent marsquake. Their spaceship is now leaning at a precarious angle and cannot make an emergency blast off. To right the spaceship, the crew uses the rocket engines powerful thrust to shift the ground under the landing legs. The attempt works and they blast off, the spaceship rising just as the Martian surface completely collapses. Once in space, Barney and Mahoney reconcile. Impressed with Barneys heroism and leadership while on Mars, Mahoney concludes that pursuing Barneys court martial for his fathers death would only impugn the generals reputation, tarnishing what previously had been a spotless military career. Better is the fiction that the man who conquered space died in the line of duty, sacrificing himself to save his crew.