Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet

Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet by Harold L. Goodwin

First published January 1, 1952

Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer Lt. Rip Foster is tasked with retrieving an asteroid made of pure thorium from the asteroid belt and bringing it to Earth for use as fissionable material. But the totalitarian Connies have their own plans for the asteroid…