The second book of the “This Big World” series. The main character, a misfit, experiences a failure, as a result of which he, the winner of the “international competition of fantastic projects,” was not accepted into the newly created “junior” cosmonaut corps, where future inhabitants of orbital stations will be trained and lunar cities. But what can one do, it just so happened, and one must live on - recover from the cruel blow of fate and make plans. Meanwhile, his friends are getting used to the new environment, realizing how their life has changed and how exciting and difficult it will become. And the “Great Ring” project is developing as usual - “space trampolines” throw cargo into space, the first real space construction begins in Earth’s orbit - and Dmitry Vetrov, yesterday’s Artek pioneer leader, engineer and MPEI graduate is preparing to take an active part in this. , however, does not relieve him of concern for his former charges, who have become members of the “junior” space program.