Prelude to Space by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online

easily. Which showed good sense on the part
     of the designer, since this cinema was a strictly functional establishment.
    The title with a few brief credits flashed on the screen.
    THE ROAD TO SPACE
    Technical advice and special effects by Interplanetary.
    Produced by Eagle-Lion.
    The screen was dark: then, in its center, a narrow band of starlight appeared. It
     slowly widened, and Dirk realized that he was beneath the opening hemispheres of some
     great observatory dome. The star-field commenced to expand: he was moving toward it.
    “For two thousand years,” said a quiet voice, “men have dreamed of journeys to other
     worlds. The stories of interplanetary flight are legion, but not until our own age
     was the machine perfected which could make these dreams come true.”
    Something dark was silhouetted against the star-field—something slim and pointed and
     eager to be away. The scene lightened and the stars vanished. Only the great rocket
     remained, its silver hull glistening in the sunlight as it rested upon the desert.
    The sands seemed to boil as the blast ate into them. Then the giant projectile was
     climbing steadily, as if along an invisible wire. The camera tilted upward: the rocket
     foreshortened and dwindled into the sky. Less than a minute later, only the twisting
     vapor-trail was left.
    “In 1942,” continued the narrator, “the first of the great modern rockets was launched
     in secret from the Baltic shore. This was V.2, intended for the destruction of London.
     Since it was the prototype of all later machines, and of the spaceship itself, let
     us examine it in detail.”
    There followed a series of sectional drawings of V.2, showing all the essential components—the
     fuel tanks, the pumping system and the motor itself. By means of animated cartoons,
     the operation of the whole machine was demonstrated so clearly that no one could fail
     to understand it.
    “V.2,” continued the voice, “could reach altitudes of over one hundred miles, and
     after the War was used extensively for research into the ionosphere.”
    There were some spectacular shots of New Mexico firings in the late 1940s, and some
     even more spectacular ones of faulty take-offs and other forms of misbehavior.
    “As you see, it was not always reliable and it was soon superseded by more powerful
     and readily controlled machines—such as these—”
    The smooth torpedo-shape was being replaced by long, thin needles that went whistling
     up into the sky and came floating back beneath billowing parachutes. One after another
     speed and altitude records were being smashed. And in 1959….
    “This is the ‘Orphan Annie’ being assembled. She consisted of four separate stages,
     or ‘steps,’ each dropping off when its fuel supply was exhausted. Her initial weight
     was a hundred tons—her payload only twenty-five pounds. But that payload of magnesium
     powder was the first object from Earth to reach another world.”
    The Moon filled the screen, her craters glistening whitely and her long shadows lying,
     sharp and black, across the desolate plains. She was rather less than half full, and
     the ragged line of the terminator enclosed a great oval of darkness. Suddenly, in
     the heart of that hidden land, a tiny but brilliant spark of light flared for a moment
     and was gone. “Orphan Annie” had achieved her destiny.
    “But all these rockets were pure projectiles: no human being had yet risen above the
     atmosphere and returned safely to Earth. The first manned machine, carrying a single
     pilot to an altitude of two hundred miles, was the ‘Aurora Australis,’ which was launched
     in 1962. By this time all long-range rocket research was based upon the great proving-grounds
     built in the Australian desert.
    “After the ‘Aurora’ came other and more powerful ships, and in 1970, Lonsdale and
     McKinley, in an American machine, made the first orbital flights around the world,
     circling it three times before