McCauley visits England and advises the British space program. He objects to the design of a second stage rocket. The British launch the spacecraft anyway and the second stage malfunctions hurling the craft into a tumbling orbit around the earth. With the help of a new British astronaut, McCauley pursues the crippled ship and succeeds in rescuing the crew.
A new project involves launching capsules of atomic waste into orbit and then assembling them with an atomic rocket motor. The unit is then accelerated for disposal into the Sun. The civilian Project Engineer, who will attach the a-rocket in space, is a former astronaut who resigned after a re-entry accident. He now lacks confidence in himself and is convinced that no-one else trusts him.
A 3-man team visit the Lunar Observatory, isolated from all Earth signals on the Moon's far side, for routine Radio Telescope work. They pass the time during a long sky-mapping session by taping "A glimpse of lunar life" sound-broadcast. An power fault interrupts and requires a Moon walk to the Radio Telescope. One man is badly injured while returning. Unconscious for days, he responds to the tape-recording and deliriously asks to hear the "sound from the stars." His colleagues comply and make an interesting discovery.
Colonel McCauley returns from Asteroid 78-1. The mission was cut short by the failure of his suit oxygen supply. He is insistent that just before he passed out he saw fossil evidence of life on the asteroid. Unconnected with this, Air Force medical staff have recommended his prolonged series of missions requires a 60-day 'grounding' to recover from stress. Will McCauley be able to lead the return mission to the asteroid if its unpredictable orbit permits another rendezvous?
Space station Astra is chosen for a medical experiment to measure men's reactions to stress and fatigue. The medical director is convinced he can quantify a person's reactions to strain and so prevent accidents. Then a life-threatening problem on the space station requires men to perform well beyond their limits. An inner "voice of infinity" is what they heard, enabling them to save the situation.
While on a routine flight one of the rockets is hit by a meteor fragment. On Earth they run tests to discover the meteor is not only made of metal, but appears to have been artificially created. A second flight is launched immediately to retrieve more samples. What they discover may solve one of the greatest mysteries known to man.
Col McCauley, while serving on the space station gets word his son has been seriously injured in a hit and run accident near the rocket base. Tension mounts as word comes through the driver of the car has been identified, and appears to be on duty on board the space station. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide on the station, how will this terrible emotional conundrum be resolved?
Tensions mount as final crew selections go forward for a special observation flight of the sun. At the core of the conflict is the potential for one of the crew to be a woman. The other candidates fail to treat her as a highly trained crew person and only see her as a vulnerable woman. Ultimately she uses her gender to solve the problem
An eager, space-enthusiast technician (played by Robert Reed of The Brady Bunch) installs a smaller Guidance Control System he designed into the rocket ship. There is now room in the equipment bay for him to stow away on the next flight. But during the 12G takeoff his improvised couch crushes the equipment rack, causing the ship to lose all power before reaching orbit. The uncontrollable ship will quickly re-enter and burn unless repairs can be completed.
Four men a stranded after their spacecraft crash lands on the Moon. Their only hope of survival is to walk to Moonbase. All goes well till they realize the oxygen tank they are carrying to resupply themselves has a faulty valve. There is a way around the problem, but the cost may be too high for the team to accept