Isso provavelmente é Rocket Man de Lee Correy - pseudônimo de G. Harry Stine, que trabalhou em White Sands no início dos anos 50. Juvenil de 1955, o personagem principal é um jovem que vem para White Sands para ajudar a construir o primeiro foguete Mars. O livro é dedicado a 'Os estudantes cooperativos da Faculdade de Agricultura e Artes Mecânicas e Terra de Provas White Sands do Novo México'.
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...