Atomic Station by Frank Belknap Long — Read

It was incredible and a little frightening. The rocket ship was within a half million miles of the Station, but as yet no reply had come to the frantic signals which Roger Sheldon had been sending out at ten second intervals.

He sat before the observation glass in the control room, a big man with the competent hands of an experienced navigator, and a curious mobility of expression which seemed out of keeping with the precise movements which those hands were making on the board.