What saves the Astronef from the Sun?
Earth enters the right line of attraction just as the ship's heat reaches the couple's agreed limit, shifting the gravitational balance away from the Sun.
Do Redgrave and Zaidie take the morphine?
No. They lift the glasses, but Zaidie sees Earth before either drinks and knocks the dose away.
Where do they first return to Earth?
Redgrave conserves the last force, clears the Andes, and lets the Astronef settle in the Pacific west of Mollendo, Peru.
How does the voyage finally end?
After rescue and refueling, the Astronef flies to Washington and lands where it departed four months earlier.
Themes and What the Ending Means
Marriage as expedition: The honeymoon makes intimacy inseparable from risk, novelty, and joint decision-making.
Technology and mastery: Redgrave's control seems absolute until gravity and dwindling fuel reduce him to calculation and hope.
Alien societies: Mars, Venus, Ganymede, and Saturn become speculative mirrors for aggression, innocence, progress, and predation.
Imperial imagination: Exploration is repeatedly described through ownership, hierarchy, and the power to punish resistance.
Home: The wider the voyage becomes, the more Earth changes from ordinary background into the desired destination.