The Death's Head Meteor

Neil R. Jones was a popular writer in the 1930s who has been mostly forgotten today. HIs most famous series was the Professor Jameson stories, about a scientist reborn in space in a metal body provided by a race called the Zoromes. The first story in the series, "The Jameson Satellite," from Amazing Stories, July 1931, is here.

"The Death's Head Meteor," scanned here from Air Wonder Stories #7, from 1930, is Jones' first published story. It's an exciting bit of early science fiction. It's also the first recorded use of the word "astronaut."

Jones did not write after 1951. He died in 1988.