 Why had Harry left Earth?
But with the Procyon shuttle arriving yesterday, there was no telling what might turn up. For eighty years now, they’d been sending out the little ships that vanished at greater than the speed of light, equipped with every conceivable device to make them return automatically after taking pictures of wherever they arrived. Harry had been born just before Earth passed the drastic birth limitation act and his mother had spoiled him. He had no desire to spend ninety years cooped up with a bunch of callow young emigrants, even in one of the improved Exodus shuttles. It took two accidents to get the thing back to us—and with a half-light-year miss that delayed it about twenty years before the Procyon shuttle heard its signal.
 the law stated that he must leave due to overpopulation
 to get married and start a family  the law stated that he must leave due to overpopulation  he had committed a crime that required him to emigrate to another place  he had been born illegally on Earth