eleven o'clock
They went out ; and at ten minutes of eleven reported at the great space ship hangars north of New York , with their luggage , a conspicuous item of which was a chess board to help while away the long , long days of spacial travel . Brand then paused a little while for a final check-up on directions . They clambered into the tiny control room and shut the hermetically sealed trap-door . Brand threw the control switch and precisely at eleven o'clock the conical shell of metal shot heavenward , gathering such speed that it was soon invisible to human eyes . He set their course toward the blazing speck that was Jupiter , four hundred million miles away ; and then reported their start by radio to Commander Stone 's night operator . The investigatory expedition to the ominous red spot of the giant of the solar system was on . _ The Pipe-like Men _ Brand began to slacken speed on the morning of the thirteenth day -LRB- morning , of course , being a technical term : there are no horizons in space for the sun to rise over -RRB- .