Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 186: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DOORWAY IN THE SKY Ralph Williams THE THING tn the sky circled unobserved about the Earth. It may have just been there, as the Moon is there, and as stars are there. Or it may have been waiting. Below in New Mexico, men prepared to launch the first manned rocket— During the take-off, the three men of the crew lay on their acceleration couches, as helpless as the mice that had preceded them, while the rocket piloted itself. Tiny steel teeth gnawed stolidly and harmlessly at a tape, springing back weakly when they met resistance, transforming the punched patterns in the tape into electrical impulses which activated various relays. The perforated tape gave commands: “Do this and then do that, and if so-and-so happens, then do thus—”; and the activated relays denoted acceptance and readiness to perform these commands. A certain altitude was reached and the ship, knowing this, altered its course to the east as instructed by the tape. The first stage was dropped, as the tape directed, at the exact instant the last few drops of fuel in its tanks were exhausted, and then the second. A few minutes later, the ship realized it had attained the goal set by the tape. With a final triumphant clacking of relays, it shut off the engine. CORniclooo SS (SO)