They were the heirs of space-flight: They planned to be the first humans to land on Alpha Centauri, but the original Hartnett expedition had been lost and they had to find it first. They followed the signals and found that they led to what looked like a one-way excursion to the screwiest planetoid in the galaxy!

"Einstein's Planetoid" appeared in "Science Fiction Quarterly," Spring 1942, pages 99 to 117.

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Cyril M Kornbluth

Cyril M Kornbluth (July 2, 1923 – March 21, 1958) was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S D Gottesman, Edward J Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond, and Scott Mariner.

As a teenager, he became a member of the Futurians, an influential group of science fiction fans and writers. While a member of the Futurians, he met and became friends with Frederik Pohl, Donald A Wollheim, Robert A W Lowndes, and his future wife Mary Byers. He also participated in the Fantasy Amateur Press Association.

Robert A W Lowndes

Robert Augustine Ward "Doc" Lowndes (September 4, 1916 – July 14, 1998) was an American science fiction author, editor and fan. He was known best as the editor of Future Science Fiction, Science Fiction, and Science Fiction Quarterly, among many other crime-fiction, western, sports-fiction, and other pulp and digest sized magazines for Columbia Publications. Among the most famous writers he was first to publish at Columbia was mystery writer Edward D Hoch, who in turn would contribute to Lowndes's fiction magazines as long as he was editing them. Lowndes was a principal member of the Futurians. His first story, "The Outpost at Altark" for Super Science in 1940, was written in collaboration with fellow Futurian Donald A Wollheim, uncredited.

Frederick Pohl

Frederick George Pohl Jr. (November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years.

From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy and its sister magazine If; the latter winning three successive annual Hugo Awards. His 1977 novel Gateway won four "year's best novel" awards: the Hugo, the Locus, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He won the Campbell Memorial Award again for the 1984 collection of novellas The Years of the City. For his 1979 novel Jem, Pohl won a U.S. National Book Award, and it was a finalist for three other year's best novel awards. He won four Hugo and three Nebula Awards, including receiving both for the 1977 novel Gateway.

In 1993, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Pohl its 12th recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, and he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998.

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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at goldenagefiction@proton.me.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Einstein's Planetoid, by C M Kornbluth, Robert A W Lowndes, and Frederick Pohl