Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer (the space-going equivalent of a Marine) Lt. Richard Ingalls Peter ("Rip") Foster, already contending with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force (equivalent to Navy) crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an asteroid made of pure thorium from the asteroid belt and bringing it to Earth for use as fissionable material. In this he is opposed by agents of the "Consolidation of Peoples Governments", who also seek control and use of the asteroid.
The villains in Rip Foster are known as "Consops", agents of the "Consolidation of Planetary Governments" that the Space Force and Planeteers of the "Federation of Free Governments" oppose. It is easy to see that the nickname "Connies" is reference to "Commies", an abbreviation of "Communists", given that the book was written during the Cold War and Korean War. The story emphasizes adventure, comedy, and narrow escapes from destruction, but hints at a geo-political situation not unlike that of the early 1950s.
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