Space Racers

As part of his training, Hawk is unexpectedly assigned to lead a mission to the Moon. His job: to supervise the use of a new Lunar Elevator to lift a group of freighters carrying valuable Moon rocks up into space, and then lead the convoy safely back to Earth. There’s only one problem: Eagle ¬– who’s accustomed to being named Mission Leader – can’t seem to stop offering unwanted advice and suggestions to his insecure friend, which leads them all into big trouble as their convoy is bombarded by a powerful meteoroid stream. The cadets learn that they must work together if they hope to overcome their obstacles.

It’s time for a Stardust Space Academy tradition: the exciting annual race across Mars’s rocky canyons, which happens once every Martian year (twice as long as an Earth year). Coach Pigeon is busy training and preparing the cadets, who aspire to be as good as the legendary all-time Mars Canyon Race champion, Swift Starlight. The race will span some difficult terrain that the cadets have not explored before: Valles Marineris, the red planet’s grandest canyon of all. Eagle and Raven get into some serious boasting and taunting, each confident that he’ll handily beat the other… which leads to a dare: why wait for the official race? They’ll quietly meet after class at Valles Marineris and settle the bet to see who’s faster. Without telling anyone – only Starling sees them go – they head off to do just that, which leads them both into some serious trouble.

Eager to emulate their favorite television hero, Captain Cosmos, cadets Eagle, Robyn and Hawk zoom off into space – only to encounter powerful solar flares that hurtle them down onto the surface of an unfamiliar planet. Stranded there until space conditions clear up, they must use their keenest observational and analytic skills to try and determine the composition of the soil and rocks, weather conditions and various other factors, hoping to figure out where they are in the Solar System and how to get back home... only to discover, in the end, that they’ve been back on Earth the entire time.

Seeing an opportunity to make some positive changes at the Academy, Eagle nominates himself as Class President... only to be challenged by Robyn, who also feels she’d make an effective leader. They agree that the only fair way to decide is to hold an election, so both candidates are soon off and running. Robyn takes a thoughtful approach, analyzing what the Racers can realistically hope to change, while Eagle makes brash, absurd promises – but coasts to victory based on his popularity. Problem is, now he finds he has to actually deliver on his crazy campaign pledges – including putting a second Moon in orbit around the Earth, which leads to a near-catastrophe in space when the new “Moon” adversely affects the gravitational pull on Earth’s ocean tides.

Eagle, Robyn and Hawk overhear Headmaster Crane talking with Coot about top secret “Project P.S.P.”, and how the mission will require a great quantity of ice. Eager to score points with their instructors, the three Space Racers take the initiative to search the Solar System to find whatever ice the Headmaster was referring to. Their efforts take them to other planets, an asteroid belt and a frozen comet… where they face frustration at their inability to get the job done, and learn that they need to use the right tools and work together to achieve their goals. When they finally make it back to Stardust Bay for the big event, the cadets are stunned to learn that “P.S.P.” stood for “Pigeon’s Surprise Party”… and the ice that Crane sought was simply buckets of ice cubes for the rocket punch!

Things are suddenly going haywire around Stardust Bay: electrical outages, power surges, TV channels changing themselves. Coot is running himself ragged trying to fix and tinker, but to no avail. A solar storm is the root of the problem, Headmaster Crane determines, and the Space Racers must travel to the Academy’s communications satellite in space to attach a special shield. Problem is, along the way a series of misunderstandings leads to a complete breakdown in dialogue between Eagle, Robyn and Hawk… so there they are in space, trying to restore communications – and they’re not communicating! If they hope to save the day, somehow they must find a way to get past their differences and work as a team.