Ad Astra

How many ways are there to a life in space?

In A Life For The Stars, the juvenile novel in James Blish's Cities In Flight, Chris DeFord is shanghaied by the city of Scranton when it goes Okie. Chris transfers from Scranton to New York where eventually he becomes city manager for Mayor John Amalfi.

In the Dan Dare comic strip, Cadet Flamer Spry and other young Solar beings were enrolled in the Astral Space Academy from which they would graduate to the Interplanetary Space Fleet.

In Poul Anderson's "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," (see here) Jim Ching wants to attend the "Academy" which seems to be run by "...the Brotherhood." (p. 51) Is this the Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers, the trade union that represents Solar Spice & Liquors employees in "Margin of Profit," later to be replaced by the United Technicians in Mirkheim?

Also in "How To Be Ethnic...," Adzel from Woden has gained a League scholarship to study planetology at the Clement Institute on Earth and later will become the planetologist in SSL's first trade pioneer crew led by van Rijn's protege, David Falkayn.

Finally, in "How To Be Ethnic...," Adzel arranges an apprenticeship with a Master Merchant for Jim, thus enabling the latter to bypass the Academy. Finally for this post and this evening, see here for how Eric Wace, born in a slum near Triton Docks, became the SSL factor on Diomedes.

Our five young spacefaring heroes are:

 

Chris DeFord 

Flamer Spry

Jim Ching

Adzel

Eric Wace

Robert Heinlein's Scribner Juveniles are another story, too long to summarize here.