A space salvage expert and his partner become involved with a group of criminals intent on hijacking a small asteroid made of sapphire and crashing it into the moon.
A space salvage expert and his partner become involved with a group of criminals intent on hijacking a small asteroid made of sapphire and crashing it into the moon for later recovery. The only place that they can bring the asteroid down without drawing attention to themselves is a far side mining claim. But first they must dispose of the miner. What they don't know is that the miner's sister has hired the same salvage team to help her locate her missing brother.—Kevin Steinhauer <[email protected]>
Astronaut Bill Kemp [James Olson] salvages a broken satellite in space and brings it back on board his small moon lander space craft called Moon Zero Two. He and his fellow astronaut, engineer Karminski [Ori Levy], return to the moon and request landing. The year is 2021 and the moon has been colonized and has a city, a space port and customs checks, just like an airport on Earth, and they have to convince the customs officials they can bring the satellite through. Kemp is a former space hero, the first man to land on Mars, but is now earning a modest living as a salvage pilot. In the pilots' changing rooms, another pilot tries to convince Kemp to re-join the corporation as a commercial pilot but he is not interested.
Also passing through the space port are Hubbard [Warren Mitchell], a wealthy businessman, and Clem Taplin [Catherine Schell]. Clem comes looking for Kemp because she knows he is a space pilot who has been to the far side of the moon. She is looking for her brother Wally, who had been mining a claim on the far side of the moon, but has disappeared. Kemp does not know him but shows her around the facilities that have been built to make the moon habitable.
Kemp goes to his suite where he lives with Liz [Adrienne Corri], a law enforcement officer. She gives Kemp an ultimatum to give up being a salvage pilot and return to the corporation. He goes to the bar where he has a drink with Karminski. Kemp is approached by Hubbard's assistant Harry [Bernard Bresslaw] who persuades Kemp at gunpoint to meet with Hubbard. Hubbard wants to hire Kemp to retrieve an asteroid. Another of Hubbard's assistants, Whitsun [Dudley Foster], explains to Kemp that the asteroid is largely made up of six thousand tons of sapphire. Kemp questions the legality of the plan but Hubbard knows Kemp has been in trouble with the law before. Hubbard also knows Kemp can come and go from the moon without arousing suspicion so offers him a new space ship in return for helping to force the asteroid to crash on the far side of the moon.
Kemp and Karminski prepare for the mission and are met at the space port by Hubbard, Whitsun and Harry. Whitsun and Harry are going with Kemp and Karminski. Whitsun will help navigate to the asteroid and explains the plan for getting the asteroid onto the moon, by attaching rockets to the asteroid to first bring it into orbit around the moon and then guide it down to the moon's surface. Meanwhile, back in moon city, Clem continues to try and find any information she can about her brother.
Two days later, Kemp and the others land on the asteroid and attach rocket engines to it to redirect the path of the asteroid into orbit around the moon. Kemp stays on the asteroid after the others return to the ship to ensure the rockets ignite. He releases himself just in time once they do before the velocity is too great for him to escape.
They return to moon city where Kemp meets Clem again in the bar. Kemp explains her brother would have had two years to mine his claim on the far side of the moon. He offers to take her there but is overheard by Harry who does not like Kemp's plan. A fight breaks out in the bar between them and several other guests also become involved, but Kemp gets away just as Liz arrives.
Kemp and Karminski take Clem to a base on the far side of the moon in their space ship. At the far side base, Kemp and Clem hire a space buggy from Smith [Joby Blanshard], the base commander, to continue the rest of their journey on land to the location of Wally's claim. When they arrive there is no sign of life so they don space suits to go and investigate. They find Wally's body and discover he died because he had run out of oxygen while out looking for nickel. As they return to the space buggy, they are attacked by three armed men who open fire. They escape a short distance in the buggy, then abandon it and lie in wait for the attackers. Kemp manages to kill two and shoot the oxygen tank of the third. Kemp tries to save the third man by giving him one of Wally's oxygen packs but the man dies regardless because it contains something other than oxygen. Kemp concludes Wally must have been murdered. Their own space buggy is damaged so they take the one used by their assailants, but the buggy is faulty and overheats before they can reach the far side base. They escape just before it explodes and are able to walk the remainder of the way to the base.
At the base is Liz who has come to investigate Kemp's activities. Kemp confronts Smith the fake oxygen packs and Smith admits he was forced to substitute them with cyanide so that Wally could be disposed of in order for Hubbard's asteroid to be crashed onto the moon at Wally's location. Hubbard, Whitsun and Harry arrive at the base. Liz tries to arrest them but Harry shoots her. Kemp refuses to help Hubbard with the rest of his mission but Hubbard threatens to shoot Clem too, forcing him to comply.
They take off to undertake the second stage of the mission to crash the asteroid. Clem argues to Hubbard that such an enormous amount of sapphire will massively reduce its value on Earth because there will be so much sapphire in circulation. Hubbard actually plans to use the sapphire to line rocket engines which will make him rich because it will rapidly help progress space exploration to more distant planets and moons. They land on the asteroid but between them, Kemp, Clem and Karminski kill Harry and Smith. Kemp ignites the rockets on the asteroid before Hubbard and Whitsun can get off, forcing the asteroid to crash into the moon with Hubbard and Whitsun still on it. Clem is now a wealthy woman because she can legally claim the sapphire since it is on her brother's land.
