The Barrier by Bryce Walton — Read

If Stevens could cross the high velocity barrier at the edge of space he would receive a pardon on Earth. But would he live to claim it?

There were maybe ten or fifteen people to see him off. They weren't cheering. They stood in the gray curtain of rain, hunched over with their hands in their storm-coat pockets. Behind them was the vague bulk of the Experimental Station. And beyond that, invisible in the night, were the mountains he would never see again.