Having opened space to humankind he was, like Moses, denied the sight of his promised land by a combination of health and legal issues.
Harriman meets two spacemen, Captain James (Mac) McIntyre and Engineer Charles (Charlie) Cummings, who are down on their luck and giving rocketship rides at county fairs.
Harriman fails to show up for the hearing and joins the two spacemen as they prepare the ship at a secret desert location.
A deputy marshal locates them, but, when he arrives and finds them preparing for a hurried departure in the modified ship, is knocked out by Charlie Cummings.
Charlie buries Harriman's space-suited body on the surface of the Moon and scrawls his epitaph on the tag from an oxygen bottle.
When raising money for his venture, he warns Mrs. Harriman that they may close down their extensive underground apartments (built for safety during the so-called "Crazy Years") and live only in the above ground parts of the house.