In 1930s Los Angeles, an earnest engineering student named Frank Malina sets out to prove that it is possible to build a rocket. With the help of his friend Jack Parsons, a grandiose and occult-obsessed explosives enthusiast, Malina embarks on a journey that takes him from junkyards and desert lots to the heights of the military-industrial complex. Malina designs the first American rocket to reach space and establishes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but as Fraser MacDonald explains, trouble soon finds him: the FBI suspects Malina of being a communist, and when some classified documents go missing, his comrades will prove to be anything but dependable.

"[Thanks to] MacDonald's fascination with his story and a dogged determination to write this riveting and important book, [Malina's] legacy has been revived, and will surely long endure."—Simon Winchester