It is here in this last section that the story really becomes preposterous, and Morrie sets himself apart as the character that Cargraves is grooming the most. The first two thirds of the book are taken up with the various preperations before the trip, and the final third is actually set on the moon. The good doctor uses the boys as cheap labour to install this reactor in the back of an off-the-peg spacecraft, and follows this by enlisting them as crew in a mission to the moon, seemingly all so he can become a fellow of the French Academy. He is a scientist who has discovered a new way to fuel rocket engines using a thorium reactor. They are soon joined by Dr Cargraves, an uncle of one of the boys (it really doesn’t matter which one, it’s not as if they have distinct personalities or anything) who is one of the ‘fathers of the atomic age’ and a truly patronising man whose attempts to talk ‘hip’ ring about as true as the boys’ parents attitudes towards their sons plans for space exploration.

Seemingly around the age of 14/15, these interchangeable kids are a mix of precocious scientific savants who spend their weekends indulging in a spot of full-sized rocketry, and whiny Holden Caulfield’s who ‘Gee Whillickers’ their way around the book driving too fast and being casually callous about phonies and rotters.

The novel follows the adventures of three boys, Art, Morrie, and Ross. The short novel is a strange mix of Verne’ian hard science fiction, Boy’s Own adventure, and outright pulp ridiculousness.

Published by Scribner, it appeared in 1947 as a young adult book and it really shows. Rocket Ship Galileo is Heinlein’s earliest novel length science fiction publication.

Robert heinlein rocket ship galileo