ning time passed quickly. The sun receded. The Planeteers
corrected course. Rip sent in his recommendations for promotions, and
looked over the last nuclear crater to see why the blast had started the
asteroid spinning.

The reason could only be guessed. The blast probably had opened a fault in
the crystal, allowing the explosion to escape partially in the wrong
direction.

Once the course was corrected, Rip calculated the position for the final
nuclear charge. When the asteroid reached the correct position relative to
earth, the charge would not only change its course but slow its speed
somewhat. The asteroid would go around the earth in a series of
ever-tightening ellipses, using Terra's gravity, plus rocket fuel, to slow
it down to the right orbital speed.

When it reached the proper position, tubes of rocket fuel would change the
course again, putting it into an orbit around the earth close to the space
platform. It wasn't practical to take the thorium rock in for a landing.
They would lose control and the asteroid would flame to earth like the
greatest meteor ever to hit the planet.

Putting the asteroid into an orbit around earth was actually the most
delicate part of the whole trip, but Rip wasn't worried. He had the
facilities of Terra base within easy reach by communicator. He dictated
his data and let them do the mathematics on the giant electronic
computers.

He and his men rode the gray planet past the moon, so close they could
almost see the Planeteer Lunar base, circled Terra in a series of
ellipses, and finally blasted the asteroid into its final orbit within
sight of the space platform.

Landing craft and snapper-boats swarmed to meet them and within an hour
after their arrival the Planeteers were surrounded by spacemen, cadets
from the platform, and officers and men wearing Planeteer black.

A cadet approached Rip and looked at him with awe. "Sir, I don't know how
you ever did it!"

And Rip, his eyes on the great curve of earth, answered casually, "There's
one thing every space-chick has to learn if he's going to be a Planeteer.
There's always a way to do anything. To be a Planeteer you have to be able
to figure out the way."

A new voice said, "Now that's real wisdom!"

Rip turned quickly and looked through a helmet at the grinning face of
Major Joe Barris.

Barris spoke as though to himself, but Rip turned red as his hair. "Funny
how fast a man ages in space," the Planeteer major remarke