The Skyfire Puzzle

The Skyfire Puzzle is no. 85 in the Hardy Boys series and no. 36 in the Mystery Digest series, written by Franklin W. Dixon.

Plot summary

Frank and Joe Hardy are on a stakeout in Okefenokee Swamp with their father Fenton, using their new van full of computer and surveillance equipment. Fenton Hardy is chasing industrial saboteurs who nearly kill Fenton and the Hardys' friend Chet Morton. The head of security at Kennedy Space Center, Harry Stone, is baffled by a series of accidents involving the space shuttle Skyfire. Stone is notified of an explosion at the space center. Frank, Joe, Chet, Stone and his daughter Suzanne head to Cape Canaveral, where they meet Nat Cramer from Starglass Corporation and his security man, Pete McConnel. Starglass developed the Longeye radio telescope, which is to be placed in orbit by Skyfire. Maxwell Grant, deputy director of operations, offers Frank, Joe, Chet and Suzanne the chance to fly on Skyfire as passengers.

While Frank, Joe and Chet train for the shuttle mission, they help Stone and his aide, Lew Gorman, investigate the mysterious accidents. A series of occurrences indicate that someone wants the Hardys off the case: Fenton Hardy is attacked by gunmen; a masked man makes a centrifuge run wild with Joe aboard; a mysterious caller summons the young people and Gorman to a meeting on the beach that proves to be a trap; and hallucinogenic crystals are placed in Chet's air hose during neutral buoyancy training, causing him to attack Frank underwater. McConnel is apparently shot by terrorist Franz Schacht, who is linked to the case by a fingerprint.

The day before the shuttle launch, the Hardys' van is shot at by a man whom Fenton recognizes as Stone. Evidence found in Stone's house seems to prove that he and Gorman are foreign agents; they are arrested, and Suzanne is removed from the shuttle crew. During the shuttle mission, Frank links the spacelab computer with the computer in the Hardys' van and discovers that the body profile of one of the criminals from the beach matches that of a man present during the Okefenokee attack, linking the two cases. The Hardys deduce that Cramer and McConnel must be involved with the industrial espionage ring. Frank discovers that McConnel never visited an emergency room after supposedly being shot. The Hardys and Chet convince the shuttle commander to fake a power failure that would strand them in orbit, tricking Cramer into panicking and making a spacewalk to send Longeye, which is set to explode, into space. Frank follows Cramer outside and frightens him into a confession. The Longeye on the shuttle is a mockup; Cramer and McConnel planned to sell the real Longeye to the spy ring. McConnel and Cramer faked Schacht's involvement, McConnel's shooting and Stone's guilt using masks of Schacht and Stone and a planted fingerprint.

Notes

The Skyfire Puzzle was originally advertised under the title The Mystery of the Space Shuttle.^[1][2] This book, as well as #84, Revenge of the Desert Phantom, were pilots for what would become The Hardy Boys Casefiles. A third book was written in this style and was intended to be #86, but was never released due to the cancellation of the series in 1985. With the resumption of the series in 1987 #86 featured a very different writing style, and the Hardys' van, while loaded with equipment in The Skyfire Puzzle, was empty in The Mystery of the Silver Star.

References