Detta är förmodligen Rocket Man av Lee Correy - namnet på G. Harry Stine, som arbetade vid White Sands i början av 50-talet. Ungdom från 1955 är huvudpersonen en ung man som kommer till White Sands för att hjälpa till att bygga den första Mars-raketen. Boken är avsedd för "The Co-Op-studenter i New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts och White Sands Proving Ground".
A colorful space story of fifty years hence has some logical suppositions even if its doings are not altogether convincing. As it is told in the first person, we are on the inside from the moment when nineteen year old Tim Layard sets foot in the international engineering school in New Mexico to his landing on Mars a year later. Determined to be a rocket man and hoping to get chosen for the Space Force, which is based nearby, both Tim and his roommate are soon given their chances. They are screened, found exceptional and, with the Sherpa boys named Tenzing and Posang, are recruited for Earth's second trial expedition to Mars. Suspense builds to a rousing climax. On Mars they discover the failure of the first expedition, get acquainted with some rather cuddly Martians, etc...