The Star of Life

"Kirk Hammond had been chosen to fly in the first manned satellite to go out around the Moon and back to Earth. But when the satellite failed to orbit properly, it went on past the Moon into the vastness of outer space, and the whole world watched as he was borne toward an unthinkably lonely death. A hundred centuries had passed when Kirk awoke to find that Man had changed, and the human race had become not one but several species."--Publisher description.