Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet by Harold L. Goodwin

"Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet" by Harold L. Goodwin is a young adult science fiction novel published in 1952. Newly commissioned Planeteer Lieutenant Rip Foster faces his first major assignment: retrieve a valuable thorium asteroid from the asteroid belt and deliver it to Earth. Already dealing with inter-service tensions aboard his Space Force vessel, Foster must now contend with hostile agents from the Consolidation of Peoples Governments who want the asteroid for themselves. A Cold War-era space adventure of rivalry, duty, and high-stakes competition. (This is an automatically generated summary.)