The Green Hills of Earth

In this classic Heinlein space-opera vignette, Rhysling — a blind, radiation-scarred engineer and songwriter — travels the solar system singing his way through a future where space travel is commonplace. Framed as a magazine feature, the story follows him as he composes a song about a lost Earth he will never see again, and it ends with a fatal repair mission that seals his fate. Melancholic, hopeful, and adventurous, it is one of Heinlein's most enduring short stories.