Spacemens Luck

 

Where Tom Corbett, Captain Video, CMDR Corry and Other Spacemen Still Live

Our story begins with Commander “Buzz” Correy and Cadet Happy of the United Planets Space Patrol are aboard the Battle Cruiser Terra V en route to Jupiter’s number two moon. An unmanned instrument station has stopped sending back signals.

As they approach the location of the station they realize the station’s atmosphere dome is gone. They land to investigate and they find the instruments are in place and the walls and the doors to the dome are still there but the plastic dome is completely gone without a trace.

Buzz and Happy head to Jupiter to the Shargon Physiological Center near Jupiter City where remote instrument station’s data is received and interpreted. There they meet with Major Robertson and Dr. William Conrad who is in charge of the program of monitoring the remote unmanned instrument stations. Commander Correy dispatches Major Robertson back to Jupiters number two moon to investigate the missing shell.

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Commander Correy and Cadet Happy are en route to the Lunar Fleet Base on the Moon where an open house is being held at the Center for Scientific Research For Spaceflight. Space Patrol Assistant Security Chief Tonga contacts by Space-A-Phone to report that the microfilm blueprint plans for the D-Ray have been stolen and that Base Commander Colonel Jacobs has set Condition Red and locked the base down.

Before Commander Correy and Cadet Happy arrive the base personell have begun inspecting all film before any passengers can board their departing space craft. Any person attempting to bypass this security procedure and attempt to depart will pass through a Cancel Ray Machine that will erase all film.

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Also known as “Astro gets Space Fever.” Returning from a routine training mission, Cadet Astro looses consciousness and Cadet Tom Corbett has to take over the Power Deck and Cadet Roger Manning man’s the Command Deck for landing. After the landing Astro blames fatigue, and doesn’t believe he is sick until he drops some deadly acids while conducting a lab experiment. Tom manges to save. Dr Dale, who is the lab instructor for their lab experiments, fears Astro may have “Space Fever” which would give Astro a medical discharge from the Academy.

Dr Dale orders Astro to Sick Bay where he under goes several tests. The tests turn out to not be conclusive as to whether Astro has Space Fever or not. Meanwhile the Polaris is ordered on another training mission and Cadet George Harvey takes Astro’s place on a trip to Mars. At the last minute, before lift off, Astro comes aboard as a passenger/patient to test his reaction in Space.

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The story begins on the man made planet Terra in the Kroser Building Mr. John Kroser, Urla Becker and Professor David Hagman recent`winner of the Kleinhurst Medal are discussing Professor Hagman’s health. It appears he is terminally ill and is resigning from Mr. Kroser’s service. His Doctor has told him that unless he retires now and takes it easy he only has 3 months to live.

Mr. Kroser is not happy but allows Professor Hagman. After he leaves Kroser and his assistant Urla Becker, his Director of Plant Operations, plot a scheme to kidnap Professor Hagman and place him in suspended animation for 3 years when their business project will be at a critical stage where they will need his particular skills. This will be like creating a “Brain Bank.”

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The crew of the Polaris are on another training mission with Major “Blastoff” Connell and are looking for caves on Pluto that will be large enough for setting up future colonies. While Tom and Major Connel look around the area around the Cruiser Polaris, Astro and Roger disobey orders and take the jet boat for a test ride. When Tom and Major Connel come back to the ship they find Astro and Roger gone. Finally Roger checks in by radio telling the Major that they have crashed.

Major Connell is so mad at the two cadets that he awards them 99 demerits each (100 gets you expelled). Roger tries to weasel out by telling the Major that they have found just the cave they came to Pluto for. Despite the seemingly good news Major Connell orders them to stay put and out of trouble.

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Commander Correy has his assistant Security officer Tonga on Titan (Saturn’s sixth moon) to investigate a scheme to pirate uranium mines which involves a feud between a spaceport official and a grizzled old veteran space pilot named Captain Gustav Krueger (Marvin Miller). He is being accused of dealing in the black market of processed foods and antibiotics. Captain Krueger in his ancient space freighter The “Lonesome Lena” has been plying Saturn and the Saturn Moons space lanes for decades. He is a “seat of the pants” pilot who chews Calium Seeds (from Venus) as a natural cure for Space Sickness. The only drawback for the Calium Seeds is they turn your fingers purple.

Corey’s and Tonga’s investigation of the scheme to pirate uranium mines on Titan leads him into a feud between a spaceport official named Sherwin McCurdy (Norman Jolley) and Captain Krueger.

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Solar Guard Cadet’s Tom Corbett, Roger Manning and Astro are performing pre-flight checks on the Control Deck of the Rocket Cruiser Polaris when the Facsimile News Bulletin Receiver announces that ther are new clues about the Vanadium hijackers. Solar Guard Captain Steve Strong arrives on the control deck and announces that the new clue is that a small private rocket ship has been seen ferrying the Vanadium in from somewhere near the sun.

Captain Strong orders the Polaris to blast off and are hot on the trail of the Vanadium smugglers. Roger picks up the smugglers Rocket Scout Ship and Captain Strong orders Full Space Speed but just as they approach and order the ship to standby for a boarding party the ship takes off and they soon loose her because the Pirate Rocket Ship, with auxiliary rockets attached, is much faster than the Polaris.

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After some ignoring instructions Roger Manning manages to keep the Polaris on the hunt for the Space Pirates aboard the hijacked Space Academy Cruiser Pollacks. When Tom is about to divert them back to Titan so that Astro can be seen by a Doctor, Astro wakes up and insists on their continuing to search for the Pirates. Against his better judgement Tom concedes.

They find the Pollacks which have entered the asteroid belt and the Polaris remains undetected by hiding in front of Asteroid 149, which will confuse the Space Pirates radar if they are even looking. The pirates go into orbit around Asteroid 406 and launch a Jet Boat down to the surface of Asteroid 406. Tom believes like the Pirates of old, they are hiding their look on this island in space.

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While on a surprise training mission, the Polaris unit takes part in Space Maneuvers with Captain Strong and other Cadet Units. The Cadet units are to seek out and engage Captain Strong, who is aboard the Space Academy Cruiser Arturis, who will be trying to evade them. The Space Maneuvers will take place in an area of space where the Cadet Space Cruiser Pollacks was lost without a trace 3 months earlier and where Space Pirates have been reported.

The Polaris crew blast off to track down Captain Strong and using a Radiation Detector Mark 2 which sniffs out the rocket trail signature of ships who have passed the area of space they are testing. With the Sniffer the cadets find Captain Strong’s signature and another radiation pattern which they follow. They find a Space Academy Space Cruiser and think it is Captain Strong. But they are fired on and they realize it is the missing Space Cruiser Pollacks which must of been taken over by the Space Pirates. After the Polaris is hit damaging their main engines, Long Range Radio and their weapons systems, Tom and Roger fake a radio call to the Saturn Solar Guard base on Titan that scares the pirates away from the Polaris and allows the cadets to escape. Roger wants to chase after them but Tom overrules him because Astro had been injured and they head to Titan.

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Space Patrol was a science fiction juvenile adventure with shows on both television and radio. Space Patrol was created by Mike Moser, a former U.S. Navy Air Force Veteran who had been in charge of training hurricane-hunter squadrons in World War II. The TV show’s success spawned a radio version from October 1952 to March 1955 running for 129 episodes. The same cast of actors performed on both the TV and the radio shows. Similarly the writers, scripts, story lines and director were used. The TV and radio versions ran separate adventures, with some of the TV villains also appearing on the radio show.

I believe that the concept of Space Patrol came straight from the Golden Age of space era popularized by Robert Heinlein’s book “Space Cadet.” Space Cadet was a 1948 science fiction novel about Matt Dodson, who joins the Space Patrol to help preserve peace in the Solar System. The story is a military academy story translated into an outer space story of a teenage boy from Iowa who goes to the Military Academy to become an officer and sees action and adventure, assumes responsibilities far beyond his years, and becomes a man.

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