October Sky is the first memoir in a series of four, by American engineer Homer Hickam Jr. originally published in 1998 as Rocket Boys.

Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr. lives in a small coal mining town in West Virginia named Coalwood.

Sonny, after seeing the Russian satellite Sputnik, decides to join the American team of rocket engineers called the Missile Agency when he graduates from school.

Sonny's first attempt at rocketry (which occurred when he was 14) consists of a flashlight tube and model airplane body as a casing.

After that, Sonny enlists the help of Quentin Wilson, Roy Lee Cooke, Sherman Siers, Jimmy "O'Dell" Carroll, and Billy Rose to help build rockets while forming the BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency).

They also won a National Science Fair gold medal for their rockets and project titled "A Study of Amateur Rocketry Techniques."