Stine grew up in Colorado Springs and attended the University of Colorado in Boulder. Upon his graduation he went to work at White Sands Proving Grounds, first as a civilian scientist and then, from 1955—1957, at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Missile Test Facility as head of the Range Operations Division.

Stine and his wife Barbara were friends of author Robert A. Heinlein, who sponsored their wedding, as Harry's parents were dead and Barbara's mother too ill to travel. Several of Heinlein's books are dedicated one or both of them, most particularly Have Space Suit - Will Travel. Stine also wrote science fiction under the pen name "Lee Correy" in the mid 1950s, as well as writing science articles for Popular Mechanix.

After White Sands, Stine was employed at several other aerospace companies, finally ending up at Martin working on the Titan project. This job was short-lived: he was abruptly fired in 1957 when United Press called him for a reaction to the launch of Sputnik 1, and he repeated to them a passage from his just-published book Earth Satellites and the Race for Space Superiority, in which he wrote, "For the first time since the dawn of history, the Earth is going to have more than one moon. This is due to happen within the next few months...or it may have already happened even at the time you are reading this." The next day he was told to clear out his desk.

Back in his days at White Sands he had handled inquiries from young people concerning rockets, and early in 1957 he wrote an article for Mechanics Illustrated about rocket safety. Shortly thereafter he received a letter from Orville Carlisle, who had begun making small models and, more importantly, replaceable solid fuel engines to power them. Stine was impressed with the samples that Carlisle had sent him, and wrote a cover article for the October MI issue about them. After the Martin firing, he contacted Carlisle and the two of them formed Model Missiles Inc., the first manufacturer of model rockets and their engines. Stine also founded the National Association of Rocketry (initially called the Model Missile Association) and wrote the safety code which became its centerpiece; he served as its president until the late 1960s.

MMI was short-lived, as they were unprepared to handle the level of business they attracted and because of some poor business decisions. Issues with the production of early engines caused them to seek out Vernon Estes, who came to them in the summer of 1958. Estes's design and construction of "Mabel", the first engine-manufacturing machine, was the foundation of his success and put Estes Industries in a dominant position in the hobby which it was never to relinquish.

Stine continued to work to popularize the hobby, writing the Handbook of Model Rocketry in 1965, which went on through seven editions over the years. He returned to the aerospace industry, continuing to write under his pen name, including a Star Trek novel called The Abode of Life and the original novel Shuttle Down. Under his own name, he was a regular science-fact columnist for Astounding and its later successor Analog, where his intriguing articles were in a position to influence two generations of budding scientists, social thinkers and film artists. Stine would also occasionally advise Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda in their work for the Next Generation as technical artists and advisors, and was credited in The Next Generation Technical Manual for that assistance.

Stine was very interested in the interaction of voluntaristic and free market Libertarian ideas with space colonization and as a tool of citizen diplomacy and world peace, and so was called to serve as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Libertarian International Organization where he mentored various citizen initiatives until his death. In the wake of his book, "The Third Industrial Revolution," he was asked to co-organize the American Astronautical Society 1977 conference on private Space Colonization to re-channel focus away from Space exploration alone, and where he received an award as a Founder of the international space effort. He was interested in the concept of non immediate profit-driven free markets, and was seen as a developer and defender of the "pay it forward" approach with Robert A. Heinlein, a term also popularized in a movie of that name.

He died in Phoenix, Arizona of an apparent stroke.

Science Fiction

(hardback, as Lee Correy)Starship Through Space, Henry Holt, 1954Rocket Man, Henry Holt, 1955Contraband Rocket, Ace Double, 1955 ISBN 9780441041466

(paperback, as Lee Correy)Star Driver, Del Rey, July 1980Shuttle Down, Del Rey, April 1981Space Doctor, Del Rey, June 1981The Abode of Life, Pocket Science Fiction, May 1982A Matter of Metalaw, DAW Science Fiction, October 1986Manna, DAW Science Fiction, January 1984

(paperback, as G.Harry Stine)Warbots, Pinnacle Science Fiction, May 1988 ISBN 1558171118Warbots #2: Operation Steel Band, Pinnacle Science Fiction, July 1988 ISBN 1558170618Warbots #3: The Bastaard Rebellion, Pinnacle Science Fiction, September 1988 ISBN 1558170898Warbots #4: Sierra Madre, Pinnacle Science Fiction, November 1988 ISBN 1558171320Warbots #5: Operation High Dragon, Pinnacle Science Fiction, January 1989 ISBN 1558171592Warbots #6: The Lost Battalion, Pinnacle Science Fiction, April 1989 ISBN 155817205XWarbots #7: Operation Iron Fist, Pinnacle Science Fiction, August 1990 ISBN 155817253XWarbots #8: Force of Arms, Pinnacle Science Fiction, March 1990 ISBN 1558173242Warbots #9: Blood Siege, Pinnacle Science Fiction, September 1990 ISBN 1558174028Warbots #10: Guts and Glory, Pinnacle Science Fiction, June 1991 ISBN 1558174532Warbots #11: Warrior Shield, Pinnacle Science Fiction, February 1992 ISBN 155817589XWarbots #12: Judgement Day, Pinnacle Science Fiction, September 1992 ISBN 155817642XStarsea Invaders: First Action, New American Library, August 1993Starsea Invaders: Second Contact, New American Library, March 1994Starsea Invaders: Third Encounter, New American Library, May 1995Open Space (graphic novel, undated)

Non-Fiction

Earth Satellites and the Race for Space Superiority, 1957Rocket Power and Space Flight, Henry Holt & Co., 1957Man and the Space Frontier, 1962The Third Industrial Revolution, Putnam, 1975 ISBN 0399115528Shuttle into Space: A Ride in America's Space Transportation, 1978The Third Industrial Revolution, Ace Science Fiction, May 1979 ISBN 0441806643The Space Enterprise, Ace Science, August 1980 ISBN 0441777562Confrontation in Space, Prentice-Hall, 1981Space Power, Ace Science, September 1981 ISBN 0441777449The Space Enterprise, 1982The Hopeful Future, MacMillan, 1983 ISBN 0026147904The Silicon Gods, Dell, October ISBN 0440080487 1984The Untold Story of The Computer Revolution, Arbor House, 1984 ISBN 0877955743Frontiers of Science: Strange Machines You Can Build Atheneum, 1985 ISBN 0689115629Handbook for Space Colonists, Henry Holt & Co., 1985 ISBN 003070412On The Frontiers of Science, Atheneum, 1985 ISBN 0689115628The Corporate Survivors, Amacom Books, 1986 ISBN 0814458319ICBM: The Making of the Weapon That Changed the World, Crown, 1991 ISBN 0517567687Mind Machines You Can Build, Top Of The Mountain Publishing, 1992 ISBN 1560870753Halfway to Anywhere, M. Evans and Company, N.Y., 1996 ISBN 0-87131-805-9Living in Space, M. Evans & Co., 1997 ISBN 0871318415The Manna Project: Business Opportunities in Outer Space, 1998

Model rocketry

The Handbook of Model Rocketry 1st ed., Follet Publishing, 1965The Handbook of Model Rocketry 2nd ed., Follet Publishing, 1967The Handbook of Model Rocketry 3rd ed., Follet Publishing, 1970The Handbook of Model Rocketry 4th ed., Follet Publishing, 1976 ISBN 0695806165The Handbook of Model Rocketry 5th ed., 1985 ISBN 0668053607The Handbook of Model Rocketry 6th ed., John Wiley & Sons, 1994 ISBN 0471593613The Handbook of Model Rocketry 7th ed., with Bill Stine, Wiley, 2004 ISBN 0471472425The Model Rocketry Manual, 1969The New Model Rocketry Manual, Arco Publishing, 1977The New Model Rocketry Handbook, Arco Publishing, 1977 ISBN 0668042826 (paper edition)The New Model Rocketry Handbook, Arco Publishing, 1977 ISBN 0668040300 (library edition)