But the danger was not over yet. He still had to be very cautious. This was brought to him sickeningly when he drew his foot back with greater force than usual and found himself weaving backward into space. With a chill of terror he grabbed a climbing handle and pulled himself snug against the ship’s hull again. Finally he felt the strong arms of his father on the lower part of his legs. He relaxed and was helped down onto the platform amid the cheers of everyone around. The sight-seers, sobered by their close call, trooped silently back into the ship. A moment later the craft began dropping earthward, its jets acting as brakes to check the rapid descent. After landing, the Shannons were called into the office of the Chief of Operations at the space port. “Young man,” the chief said to Steve, “let me congratulate you for the brave thing you did.” He offered his hand and Steve felt a flush of pride as he took the big palm in his own. “Such an unselfish deed can never be fully repaid,” the chief went on. “Tell me, Steve, do you like space-going?” Steve’s eyes glowed with stars. “Very much, sir,” he said. “Some day I’m going to become a spaceman myself.” “Then this little reward we have for you and your sister may help you reach your goal.” He held out a plastic-sealed card. Steve took it as his heart raced. It was a lifetime rocket pass! _WHEEL IN THE SKY_ Sue and Steve Shannon were riding with their father in a “space ferry” several thousand miles above the Earth. They could look out of the plastic windows of the little ship and see the winding curve of Central America far below. “Look, Steve!” Sue exclaimed. “I see the Panama Canal!” “There’s a storm over the Gulf of Mexico,” Steve said, studying a big gray patch over the water. “It makes you feel like a king being so high above everything!” The Atlantic and Pacific were throbbing blue carpets, topped by breakers of molten silver where the sunlight hit them. It was a marvelous sight, more like a scene from a fairy-land. “There’s the big space ship we got off,” Sue pointed out. “It’s beginning to drop back to Earth.” “And there’s the ‘Wheel in the Sky,’” Steve said, looking ahead. “We’ll soon be there! Isn’t it great?” Compared to the tiny ship they were in, which was shaped like a medicine capsule, the Wheel in the Sky was a gigantic thing. It looked like an automobile wheel and by its moving spokes the children saw that it was turning just like one. “Why does the Wheel spin, Dad?” Steve asked. “That’s in order to give the people inside of it a feeling of weight,” Mr. Shannon explained. “As I told you before, things in space have no weight because there is no gravity out here to speak of. What happens when you ride on the merry-go-round on the school playground?” “You have to hold on tight or it’ll throw you off,” Steve answered.