the noon sun
`` Braking rockets full ! Stand by main drive rockets ! '' The sleek ship began to settle tailfirst toward its destination -- Space Academy , U.S.A. . In the heart of a great expanse of cleared land in the western part of the North American continent , the cluster of buildings that marked Space Academy gleamed brightly in the noon sun . Towering over the green grassy quadrangle of the Academy was the magnificent Tower of Galileo , built of pure Titan crystal which gleamed like a gigantic diamond . With smaller buildings , including the study halls , the nucleonics laboratory , the cadet dormitories , mess halls , recreation halls , all connected by rolling slidewalks -- and to the north , the vast area of the spaceport with its blast-pitted ramps -- the Academy was the goal of every boy in the year A.D. 2353 , the age of the conquest of space . Founded over a hundred years before , Space Academy trained the youth of the Solar Alliance for service in the Solar Guard , the powerful force created to protect the liberties of the planets .