Space Tug

To the Stars #2

by Murray Leinster

30 Minutes to Live!

Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. "My God, we've been locked out!"

Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney's face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform.

Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe's feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Ebooks, Pulp

131 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

About the author

see also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins

Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.

Reviews

[Xian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una gran aventura espacial.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 2 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This is a young-adult novel about the beginning of the conquest of space, in the same class as Space Cadet by Heinlein and Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke, but clearly inferior. On the one hand, for those who have read Space Platform, this novel is too repetitive. On the other hand, the author seems to be paranoid. Most of the book is taken by sabotage attacks, obviously from the Soviet Union. Yes, I know that that was the time of Cold War which many thought would soon become Hot, but this is too much. And to top it all, also the chief of the space platform cracks down and becomes a suicidal madman. But there are a few good points.

ESPAÑOL: Esta es una novela juvenil sobre el comienzo de la conquista del espacio, en la misma clase que "Space Cadet" de Heinlein y "Islands in the Sky" de Arthur C. Clarke, pero claramente inferior. Para quienes han leído "Space Platform", esta novela repite muchas cosas que ya se había dicho allí. Además, el autor parece paranoico: la mayor parte del libro se ocupa de ataques de sabotaje, obviamente procedentes de la Unión Soviética. Sí, ya sé que en ese momento de la Guerra Fría muchos creían que la guerra pronto iba a ser Caliente, pero esta novela se pasa. Y para colmo, también el jefe de la plataforma espacial se derrumba y se convierte en un loco suicida. Pero hay algunos buenos golpes.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leído en 2011
Otro de los autores clásicos "de ideas". en general se deja leer pero los que más me gustaron suyos son "Un lógico llamado Joe" o "El señor de los Uffis".

Este es Prescindible totalmente.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better in some ways and worse in other ways but the overall result is rather samey. Now that the first space station has been successfully launched Jo and Sally and the team must find a way to regularly stock and defend the station from a persistent multitude of enemies.

I like the level of technical detail that Leinster includes and I'm constantly impressed by how much had been correctly predicted before these feats had been achieved in the real world.

I got a little tired of the "we need bombs to deter other bombs" mantra and the dialogue seemed more fifties than in book one.

Mark Nelson's narration of this one is next level for a volunteer effort 👌

Unfortunately the third book doesn't appear on Librivox yet unless it is hiding under a different name or in serialised parts of something like the 'Astounding' magazine.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPACE TUG is a direct sequel to SPACE PLATFORM in Leinster's Joe Kenmore series. More than straight forward adventure novels, the books examine the political and engineering problems of early space exploration. The fact that it didn't happen the way that he envisioned it a decade or two ahead of time can't be held against the books; he shows how it could (perhaps should) have happened in a very interesting and convincing manner. From current standards some of the conventions may seem a little naïve-- his girl friend is "swell," for example-- but there's an optimism and hopefulness here that's not often recaptured. The cast of supporting characters are diverse and interesting, and the engineering details are quite fascinating.

[Gerhard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aaaah, another of those "what if we could fly to space and land on the moon" little books that now seems a bit sad considering everything that has happened since. BUT another of those 'todays sci-fi is tomorrows science fact' reminders, so a bit of nostalgia in reading what was Leinster's idea of what spaceflight might involve. A quick read if you want some old time sci-fi, but stay away if you are very critical about the 'facts'! :)

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2022/0...

[Oreon · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://whatsread.pp.ua/work/8389
Прочитавши роман і лише тепер побачивши дату його написання, дещо здивувався. Читаючи, я сприймав його ще десятка на два років старше, настільки він виглядає застарілим, а місцями просто архаїчним. Не хочу зараз шукати приклади, але у багатьох інших авторів та творів 50-х років, історії виглядали набагато захопливіше та реалістичніше. Тут же все виглядає як не в міру проста виробнича історія підкорення ближніх космічних просторів, надміру присмачена різними недоглядами і проколами, численними технічними подробицями, реальність яких, ніби їх придумали школярі космічного гуртка середньої школи і які тепер навіть не викликають посмішки (оскільки роман витриманий у підкреслено серйозному тоні). Також читав я романи з яскраво виділеною та відокремленою «червоною» загрозою часів холодної війни, але тут вона винесена на ще більш високий рівень, хоч і не називається на ім'я (але знаючи про факт холодного протистояння в той період, гадаю, не складно здогадатися, кого автор має насамперед на увазі). Але тут, автор не обмежився традиційним протистоянням «всього цивілізованого світу» з цією загрозою, але зробив «хід конем» і поставив США в протистояння з рештою світу (природно, залишивши їх єдино білими і пухнастими), що, як на мене, анітрохи не краще, ніж протистояння з усім світом країни рад...

Якби комусь спала на думку неймовірна ідея екранізувати цей роман, думаю мало б вийти щось карикатурне, чорно-біле, на рівні пародійного коміксу, але при цьому без тіні гумору і з підкресленою серйозністю. Рівень опрацювання персонажів, їх «об'ємності» відповідає загальної реалістичності твору, тобто ніякий. Єдина лінія, яка у мене викликала хоч якесь пожвавлення у процесі читання, то це деякі тертя по лінії цивільної команди Джо та військового командування станцій, коли ВМС прийняли на себе підготовлені бази. І що дивно, але в романі знайшлося місце навіть для романтичної лінії: Джо! Знаєш, я напевно перша дівчина у світі, якій призначає побачення чоловік з Місяця!.

Ех, якби автор зробив свій роман хоча б коротким... а так я насилу подужав його до кінця, кілька разів серйозно борючись з бажанням остаточно його закинути і витратити свій час на щось більш цікаве і захопливе. Якби він був коротшим, я б навіть, напевно, підняв оцінку на один бал. Тепер же, у мене склалися небезпідставні побоювання щодо творчості автора — навіть не знаю, чи наважуся я почати ще якийсь його роман. Але є в цьому і позитив: тепер я краще починаю розуміти різницю між хорошим письменником і «так собі» і більше цінуватиму творчість улюблених мною авторів 🙂.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Kenmore and his crew, astronauts with the Space Exploration Project, have been assigned to deliver supplies and defensive weapons to the Platform, mankind’s first space station.

Orbiting 4,000 miles above the Earth, the Platform was constructed solely by the United States after the United Nations had rejected the proposal. As a result, the Platform is now targeted by enemy nations suspicious as to its true purpose. Expeditions to and from the Platform are under constant threat of attack by ground to space missiles—which is precisely what happens to Kenmore and crew.

After some quick thinking and imaginative solutions, they manage to thwart the bombardment and safely arrive at the Platform only to be met with scorn by the Platform’s lead scientist, Doctor Sanford. Shortly after Kenmore and his crew unload the supplies, Sanford, on the verge of a mental breakdown under the constant threat of death, attempts to kill everyone aboard the Platform. After a second ship arrives carrying Sanford’s replacement, U.S. Navy Commander Brown, Kenmore and crew depart in their ship while some of the Platform’s crew escort Sanford off in another.

As both vessels approach the Earth’s surface, Sanford’s ship is promptly destroyed by enemy fire while Kenmore and crew narrowly evade destruction. Once back at base, Kenmore is informed that Space Exploration Corporation has been contracted by the U.S. government to build a Moonship. If the vessel survives the journey, the moon will become United States territory. Will Kenmore and his crew be the first men to venture to Earth’s as-yet unexplored satellite?

In terms of plot, Space Tug is a step above the typical young adult SF adventures of the 1950s. Although most of the conflict is external to the protagonist, Murray Leinster delivers surprising moments of depth in Joe Kenmore and his crew—Haney (whose first name is never revealed), native American Chief Bender, and the “midget” Mike Scandia—all of whom are depicted as technically savvy and scientifically literate. In fact, due to his size, Scandia is the most skilled among them in zero-gravity maneuvering—a fact in which he vociferously revels.

There is little fluff in this story, aside from a slight romance brewing between Kenmore and Sally Holt, daughter of Major Holt, the base commander. The pacing is fast, the tension is constant, and there is just enough technical jargon as to provide a sense of authenticity and verisimilitude.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the age of Kerbal Space Program, this book doesn't really hold up. From a geeky point of view there were things that happened in the book that just wouldn't have been possible - like blasting off with a solid rocket and rendezvousing with a ship on a different orbit. Even children today have a good enough grasp of orbital mechanics to know that that just wouldn't be possible without some serious planning and accuracy.

The language is weird too, but quite fun. It was written published in 1953 before we made it to space so the author was on his own, and it shows: pushpots, space wagons, etc. But, to be fair, I didn't hold that against the book. I did laugh when they were all worried about the spaceship "coming a cropper."

So far though, I wouldn't really mark the book down for what I have reviewed, but the book itself isn't so well written. It follows a simple rhythm of launches and landing, each a sequence that is pages long. I think a significant fraction of this book is launching or landing. Along side all these launches there was a cold war plot for a bit of extra tension from the (Russian?) enemy state who were intent on smashing their spaceships out of the sky. It was fine, a little flat if you ask me, it was a short book but the author did take the time to attempt to deal with some of the grey area of war, and I appreciated that. It's just that while reading through that last launch sequence it was becoming tedious. Another launch with an emergency that conveniently lets the first character become the hero, roaring rockets, the pressure of gravity...

In the 50's I think this would have been a good read, because of the novelty of the subject. But, in the absence of the fascination with space travel (particularly because the space travel in this book is actually old fashioned now, and not particularly accurate) it doesn't hold up as much of anything.

I would still recommend reading it though, maybe not the whole series, but at least one since it seems to be an artefact of the era.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought my copy of this book at a local antique mall for something like 75 cents. It was in a giant stack of similar old sci-fi and fantasy pulp paperbacks, all with their spines and covers crinkled and their pages yellowed to the color of chicken soup. I picked this one more or less at random, thinking what the hey, looks cheesy, but how bad can it be? Published in 1953, I would guess this was considered to be lightweight, throwaway entertainment at the time it was printed. Considered 70 years later in our "enlightened" 2023, it is definitely a product of its time: sexist, racist, and jingoistic, not to mention shallowly plotted. The basics: the good ol' US of A has launched an orbiting space platform, the first nation to do so, since the UN was dragging its collective feet when it came to space exploration, and gosh darn it, somebody had to do it, amiright? The ideological rivals and enemies of the USA, never explicitly named but doubtless the Godless Communists and their client states, take exception to this act of American Exceptionalism. Despite the fact that the American space station is nominally a civilian affair, rival nations begin taking potshots at it with nuclear-tipped missiles. We are introduced to a group of four intrepid heroes who are charged with flying a cargo rocket stuffed with supplies and guided missiles to the orbiting outpost, so its occupants can eat and breathe and defend themselves. Most of the book deals with the nefarious attempts to shoot down the station and the Yankee ingenuity employed to foil the attacks. Various aspects of orbital mechanics are discussed at length. The sole female character, left earthside at the US rocket base, pines for her space man and displays a range of emotions that go from anguished to overwrought. The characters are cardboard cutout stereotypes, including a Native American nicknamed "chief" and a little person referred to throughout as a "dwarf". Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a 1953 pulp potboiler. Two out of five stars.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Librivox longer than usual Audiobook well read by narrator Mark Nelson. This Sequel to Space Platform was written in 1953 and is one of his earlier works, IMHO he got way better at characterisation later. This cold war era story of a group of swell guys dedicated to heroically saving the US from all the other nations determined to prevent their building the first space platform. They work tirelessly to prevent the US from being thwarted in its ambitious plan to bring World Peace by threatening to "neutralise" any naughty opposition missiles with patriotic ones launched from their platform. Aimed at young adults it's still an exciting story, containing plenty of action for the cast of cardboard cutout characters who have their motives explained through "deep psychological analysis"! Now our heroes can by contrast appear smart, stable and yet sensibly rebellious against officers still married to the strict military autocratic heirarchy that must have still oppressed the minds of those who had survived the horrors of WWII which had ended only 8 years before.

The benefits of 2019 hindsight made it quite amusing. They had radio and "TV fax" for documents apparently, but still used physical letters to communicate securely between the space station to Earth. They had computers, but could never imagine installing such a massive device in the actual rockets powered vehicles such as the Space Tug used to build the platform. One thing he did predict correctly was the creation of Space Junk, although the author was oblivious to the problematic nature of its creation. He also seems to have predicted 3d printing or at least meta materials with his idea of powdered metal concrete. I also liked his use of water and bulldozers to cool the ground below the returning rocket, SpaceX didn't seem to bother although their vehicles are unmanned so far.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 2 of the trilogy, same main characters but a next episode in the timeline so that it is in now way a soft redo of the strong first part of the series.
The space station has been launched and now it needs provisions and also weapons. The goal of guaranteed world peace, as little as it was credible already, proves to be further away than ever. On the contrary it is itself almost cause for a new world war. We should remember that this story plays at the time of the cold war when the 2 world powers are competing on everything and the race to the Moon becomes extremely important - more for prestige than anything else but that is history afterwards.
The heroes of the first episode are left behind on Earth when the space station takes of, but are recalled to action soon afterwards. A logistics service needs to be established from Earth to the Space Station and who else and the only people with experience in that field will get the honour to that "first"? Soon it becomes clear the sabotage is still a daily nightmare and the take-off of the station did not end this, on the contrary it becomes an even harder battle.
The romance on the background status there, Sally is the very obediente self-erasing girl as was custom in those days, her hero puts his career and the faith of humanity first.
This alone makes the story hard to swallow, the adventurous aspect is good, the writer is of course excellent but overall the whole story suffers from technical backlog. Some things are just not possible, others have been achieved and of course the political situation has changed.
The current western wave of self-destruction makes the zest of the story actual again - with a bitter note of regret.
The second part of the trilogy brings a message of hope for humanity. Let's see how this evolves in the upcoming last part of the series.

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an "American Exceptionalism" sci fi book from 1953. Frankly, I was amazed mostly at the manufacturing break through part of the story as that seemed positively prescient. It is easy to pick holes in stories about the future from 65 years ago but, in spite of such things, I found this to be an enjoyable little book.

The story begins with the USA having an unarmed space station. The USA believes arming the station will end the arms race and bring about world peace but the USSR opposes USA hegemony so we first meet our MC flying missiles to the space station. The flight is attacked but, thanks to American ingenuity, they survive. However, the future looks dim since it is quicker and easier to build missiles to destroy the space station then to bring arms to the space station. A breakthrough is made in space station defenses and then in transports to the space station so, in theory, world peace is achieved. However, the US military now steps in and, using the recent breakthroughs, sends a mission to the moon to establish a military base there. However, this mission encounters potentially deadly difficulties and another breakthrough is required to save the mission.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Space Tug" by Murray Leinster describes the adventures of a space tug captain and his crew as they struggle to bring supplies to a space station while avoiding missiles from an undisclosed adversary. Politics in the story reflects the cold war and the America First philosophy rather than an international approach to space travel. Note that the story contains some things that are not politically correct. The science in the story is a bit dated, but represents the thinking in the early to mid-1950's (tin cans in space?). The effects of being in space on how ships actually travel is quite accurate, quite a difference from that described in most modern speculative fiction. The situations are entertaining and the solutions to problem are clever, but in many cases not realistic.

The LibriVox presentation is very good.

[Michael Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Leinster wrote some good books but this was not one of them. Too much uwanted detail. The start of the space age. An American space platfform is placed in orbit at 4,000 miles up, at 4,000 mph, which becomes a target for Russian missiles. After casually working out a new kind of rocket and fuel a Moon ship is planned. Things go wrong but they are saved by the four heroes left behind, with the help of a gravity assist, in this 1953 book.

[Call me Jeeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic representation of our world today

Murray Leinster had a vision a very clear vision of what future would be. Hell he got some of right. Fantastic flying tugs , ships going to the moon, visions of war throughout the middle East. The story is a fun read , feel good story where the good guy wins and gets the girl.

[Tim Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Way The Future Was

From 1953, Murray Leinster’s version of the space race and how we got to the moon. Makes for interesting “what if” speculation. It’s fairly typical of the era - see Heinlein’s 1947 Rocket Ship Galileo for another “what If” take on the first moon rocket. No one seems to have anticipated NASA, or anything remotely like it.

[Jason Brinkerhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best type of classic science fiction, speculation about real solutions to challenges yet to be encountered. A spiritual ancestor to The Martian from a time before Sputnik and manned space flight.

[Leigh Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story

I first found this book on LibraVox read by the wonderful Mark Nelson and wanted to read it myself. Sometimes I read it along with him. I heard him read Space Platform first and when I found them on Kindle for free I had to get them both.

[Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable science fiction.
Read as an audiobook.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The US leads the way to space, as (unnamed) commies try to shoot everyone down. Pulpy as heck, and sexist too—but maybe notable for including a Mohawk and a “midget” in the central cast.

[Kurt Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a fun read. Joe was like a space MaCGyver.

[Adhoc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goofy nonsense. Leinster writes some of the crappiest dialog i have ever read, his romantic dialog is laughable. The characters are cardboard cutouts

[Cheryl]

Not for me.

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another early faux sci-fi thriller/era, filled with faux science. I found it fun, funky and entertaining. Hopefully you will, as well.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun story about space

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Murray Leinster paints the following picture for us: It is the time of the Cold War. The UN has declined to attempt to launch an artificial satellite into orbit, so the USA has gone ahead and done so on its own. Said satellite is a space station, with a small crew aboard. (I know now, though I did not when I started the book, that these events are detailed in a previous novel.) Now Joe Kenmore is commanding the first mission to fly a manned ship up to the space platform, bringing supplies and weapons. This is not a tale of alternate history; it was published four years before Sputnik 1 launched, eight years before Yuri Gagarin became the first man to make it to outer space. It is speculation on the future which has become our past.

You'd think that would get in the way. It doesn't so much. History didn't come close to matching what is depicted here, and this is not how we actually launch spacecraft, and so on and so forth. I know that. That's okay, though, because what we're told still has a sort of authentic feel to it. Like, I can totally see some engineer trying to solve the problem of achieving escape velocity and going, "Okay, what if we had a bunch of little jet engines, and then some JATOs..." I don't know how the science checks out, either, but to me as an uninformed reader it at least feels real enough to support suspension of disbelief when it's coming from a time when all of this was theoretical. I really enjoyed the first few chapters in that regard.

Unfortunately, there's more to it than that. It's a wonderful example of how science fiction proven wrong when history caught up with it can still be quite enjoyable. It's not such a stellar example of the actual fact of writing, though. I give some allowance for the time in which it was written and the social and political biases it exhibits as a result; I'm not complaining about that. (Much.) It's very repetitive, though. We're told things multiple times, as though we won't remember anything from one paragraph to the next, and the same words and phrases are used over and over and over again. Besides that, after a certain point in the book, things start to go awfully fast. I don't mean that the action is fast-paced. I mean that in-story technological advances happen with a speed and a lack of testing, setbacks, red tape, or unexpected results that utterly defies everything I know about development. My suspension of disbelief was totally fine with "Americans get to space first, in the form of a manned space station", but could not survive this.

I also, even allowing for the times, have trouble believing that anyone could look at this space station being loaded up with weapons, especially when they're prepping to stock a prospective moon base and are absolutely overloaded, and think that it could only be interpreted as a threatening move by people trying to make the USA into the bad guys. I mean, hello. What part of "the US has a space station full of missiles they can throw around and no one else has figured out how to get there yet" doesn't sound like it might be a little worrisome to certain other nations?

Ultimately: Neat historical curiosity for the first few chapters, but not that great overall.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Space Tug is one of the many sci-fi novels from the 1950s which tried to give a practical, realistic rendering of the practical problems of space flight- dealing with the physical strains of the G-force during lift-off, overcoming the disorientating effects of weightlessness (the astronauts wear magnetic-soled shoes like in 2001: A Space Odyssey), growing vegetables in a hydroponic farm on a space station, etc.

Unfortunately, in order to inject some jeopardy Leinster had to make his incredibly smart people also incredibly stupid. The space station commander clearly goes insane, yet they basically ignore him until he nearly kills them all. Also, no one thought about garbage disposal before the mission, an obvious consideration.

Fortunately this oversight ends up saving them as they make a halo out of the trash to take out the enemy missiles aimed at the station. Did it really seem plausible during the early years of the Space Race that'in a full-scale space-war nuts, bolts, rusty nails and beer bottle caps would become essential military equipment'?

As for the four man crew, it included a midget who was inevitably sensitive about his size, as well as a Mohawk who they inevitably called Chief. Any attempt to inject some human interest amongst the space walks and escape velocities fell flat.

First published in 1954, three years later it would prove to be the Russians who first sent a satellite into space.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Product Description

30 MINUTES TO LIVE!

Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. "My God, we've been locked out!"

Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney's face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform.

Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe's feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live.