Arthur C. Clarke 
Islands in the Sky 

When young Roy Malcolm won the aviation quiz contest, his prize should have meant an ordinary sight-seeing jaunt on one of the man-made space stations that circled the earth. But instead the trip turned into a terrifying journey as misadventure after misadventure plagued the artificial satellite. The climatic moment came when one of the crew pushed the wrong button and rocketed the runaway ship into outer space…