Blast off!...for thrilling interplanetary adventures with courageous teen space explorer Tom Corbett and his pals, the brilliant but enigmatic Roger Manning & the affable Venusian engineer Astro. * * * Here's Carey Rockwell's fabulous first foray into the future world of the Solar Alliance — featuring the origin story of Tom Corbett and the crew of the rocket ship Polaris, their early days at the Space Academy, and their death-defying encounter on Mars — an encounter that forged three young cadets into adults, lifelong friends, and a legendary team of spacemen.