YASID - Astronauts Return To Depopulated Earth

This is probably a difficult one.

In 1960 or a little before I read a story, perhaps
in a Badger book or a "Titbits" sf or similar,
about four astronauts (two men, two women) who
return to earth from the first space journey and
find it deserted - no people and iirc no animals
either. After various goings-on, they discover
that they are the cause of the disaster - on
take-off they disrupted "Millington's Boundary", a
kind of super-ionosphere at the top of earths
atmosphere, and let in cosmic rays which destroy
living tissue. They themselves were protected by
the ship's hull and by their spacesuits, hence are
the only survivors.

Two of them die in different ways. The remaining
two, after a final swing around the earth in
search of others, return - and promptly
disintegrate as soon as they step out of the ship
without their suits. In taking off n the survey
trip, they have disrupted the Boundary again.

There is an epilogue in which alien astronauts
visit Earth in 2786, and find microscopic life
evolving from the micro-organisms in the ashes of
the dead. They send in a mystified report that
"This planet is past middle life, yet it has
youth".

Ring any bells? It might have been a Fanthorpe,
but I can't guess which one. I find it most
frustrating when I can remeber almost _everything_
except the title and author.



--
Mike Stone - Peterborough, England


It is so stupid of modern civilisation to have
given up believing in the
Devil, when he is its only explanation.

Ronald Knox.


.