Moonfall

Moonfall is a science fiction novel by the American writer Jack McDevitt, published in 1998.

It is set in 2024, when Charlie Haskell, the vice president of the United States, is on the Moon to inaugurate the first moonbase. That is when an interstellar comet is discovered to be on course to strike the Moon, and the working assumption becomes that the collision will break the Moon apart. Getting the base's population away in time depends on the L1 space station near the Earth-Moon point and on Skyport, a larger station in orbit around the Earth.

Haskell, wanting to be seen taking responsibility, promises the public that he will not leave the Moon until everyone else has gone. Then the analysis of the rescue plan shows that about ten people cannot be taken off before the comet arrives, and he decides to keep his promise. The evacuation is run with several large spacecraft, called SSTOs, docking with smaller ferries to lift people to the stations, and the novel was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.