Host Truman Bradley tells us some of the barriers to space flight.  The first step on the journey is to break the sound barrier.  Then the heat barrier, which melts airplanes at high-speed like a 10 cent plastic model recycled from a previous episode.  But most of all there is the gravity barrier, a small force which requires tremendous energy to lift a rocket or me after the COVID lockdown.

A naval task force, led by the USS Morgan, is in the Pacific.  Hmmm, there really was a USS John Morgan launched May 4, 1943.  Sadly, it was sunk 2 weeks later after colliding with the USS Montana.  Men were lost from both ships and the ships were needed for the war effort, so nothing funny about that.  But it is a fitting choice for this series.

Their mission has been publicly announced as a nuclear weapons test shot, but that is just a ruse — they are just going to test fire a rocket out of the atmosphere.  So rather than honestly inform the public of an event that would excite America after a depression and two wars, fuel the imaginations of kids who would grow up to be writers and astronauts and scientists, and energize the country by beating those darn Russkis, the government decided it is better to call it a nuclear bomb.  Although, to be fair, at that point, abominations like nuclear blasts and Buddy Hackett were still used as entertainment in Las Vegas.

The crew tells Dr. Porter that they are also sending 2 mice up on the rocket, which seems a very inefficient way to get rid of mice.  The men in the control room work busily to  launch the rocket and see it break through to outer space.  Dr. Masters gleefully proclaims, “Operation Outer Space is successful!”  Nice work maintaining that cover story, Doc!

The Hydrogen-Ion Propulsion System will keep the rocket traveling through space forever, but it is only programmed to go to the moon.  It successfully reaches the moon and circles around it.  On the way back to Earth, 6 flying saucers join it!  Holy smoke, the rocket crashes back on earth!  Only SFT could turn this into a boring gabfest.

One other barrier they neglected to mention is zero-gravity, maybe because it hits too close to home.  This show has no weight whatsoever.

At the time this aired, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was on the air.  The Twilight Zone and One Step Beyond were just 3 years away.  I just can’t fathom how something like this was considered acceptable.