Fredric Brown 
Lights in the Sky are Stars 

Starduster Yes, I’m Max Andrews. I’m one of the guys who fought and bled and worked to get to Mars. I figure what I gave up in those early years gave me the right to pilot the next big jump.I’ve lied and stolen for that right. I’d have killed, too, but I didn’t have to. Instead, I let a woman give her life so I could have my chance, my door to space.You think I’d stop at anything, now?I’ll be on that rocket, blasting away on America’s biggest adventure, the hop out into the stars themselves.Only Fred Brown could have written this deeply moving science fiction novel about one man’s epic, life-long struggle to open mankind’s pathway to the stars.