Starblazer Issue 002[]
Story: Ray Aspden
Art: Keith Robson
Cover: TBC
Issue: 002
Date: 1979
Prior: The Omega Experiment
Next: Alien Attack
Story Summary[]
A war ended man's traditional living places - the surfaces of planets. Few inhabitable planets remained and artificial satellite worlds were the only means of survival. As fuel-bearing minerals existed only in small quantities, an alternative power source had to be found...and it was. The natural ether currents in space were used like the trade winds in sailing ship days - to pull and push spacecraft at great speed through the endless emptiness by means of "sails".
Back Cover[]
In the Conquest of Space (2) The first attempt by the Americans to launch a satellite was a failure - the rocket exploded on the launch pad on 6th December 1957. Another rocket team were given orders to launch a satellite and succeeded. The team, led by Dr Werner von Braun, fired a Jupiter C rocket which took Explorer 1 into orbit on 31st of January 1958. The pencil-shaped satellite made a momentous discovery - the Earth was encircled by two belts of radiation trapping particles from the Sun. These were named the Van Allen radiations belts after the man who designed the equipment for the satellite.