Takeoff

This is as much a detective story as it is a science fiction tale. Kornbluth describes an amateur attempt to go to the moon which is secretly funded and designed. The government is too bureaucratic amd slow, so a private enthusiast group decides to build what they describe as a prototype. When the hero gets involved, he realizes that the more he knows the more dangerous it is to his continued safety.

For the most part, the story and characters are decent, if rather cliché as was typical of the time. There are some real weaknesses around two of the female characters which weaken both the course of the story and the ending.