ROCKET JOCKEY

This was published in 1952, well before actual spaceflight began.
It's set about 200 years after spaceflight began but the pilots and ships
don't have computers and the engines sound more like steam engines than actual rockets.
The author put more effort than usual to get the descriptions of the planets and their relative distances correct.
I think large parts of this book could have been used to describe a boat race around the Pacific.
So it's kind of interesting historically but don't work too hard to find a copy.