Originally published in 1928 in the journal of the German Rocket Society, “Die Rakete”, and in English in 1931, this story was written by one of the seminal figures in the early history of space travel: Max Valier. An experimenter and indefatigable prosyletizer of astronautics, Valier did much to convince the public of the possibility of space flight in the near future. He wrote numerous books, countless magazine articles—all of which were published internationally—and lectured widely. This is one of his rare works of fiction.