This inexpensive paperback book contains a novelization by science fiction writer Murray Leinster of adventures based on the television program, "Men into Space" (1959–60). In its one season of half hour black and white programs, "Men into Space" depicted the realistic adventures of Colonel Edward McCauley, head of a fictional American space program. Aimed at adults, executed with the cooperation of the Department of Defense, and aired on CBS, "Men into Space" offered a fact-based depiction of space flight in the near future of the budding space age. It was produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc., a Midwestern company known as the leading producer of first-run syndicated programming. Murray Leinster was the penname of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, a writer born in 1896 who published hundreds of short stories and articles, as well as scripts for movies, radio, and television.

John C. Fredriksen, who is also the author of an eponymous episode guide to Men into Space, gave the paperback novel to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2013.