Spacehounds of IPC is a science fiction novel by American writer E. E. Smith. It was first published in book form in 1947 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 2,008 copies. It was the first book published by Fantasy Press. The novel was originally serialized in the August, September and October issues of the magazine Amazing Stories in 1931. Smith was disenchanted when he saw editor T. O'Conor Sloane's unauthorized changes in the story, most likely made to give equal length to each of the three parts it had been split into.

The story was the first to use the term "tractor beam", a name and concept that has been adopted by many subsequent literary works of fiction and other media to the present day.

The Inter-Planetary Corporation's (IPC) space-liner, IPV Arcturus, takes off on a routine flight to Mars. Brilliant physicist Dr. Percival (“Steve”) Stevens is aboard to validate the work of the ship's pilots in response to reports by the Check Stations of errors in the ship's flight positions. To his relief, he confirms that the pilots are right, and it was the Check Stations that were out of position, not the ships.

Before the Arcturus can reach Mars it is attacked and literally cut into pieces by a small, mysterious, globe-shaped spaceship. The attacking spaceship begins towing the pieces toward Jupiter. Stevens and a female passenger named Nadia Newton end up stranded in a large, wedge-shaped piece of the dismembered ship. They work to repair as much equipment as they can, gathering needed material from other pieces of the ship floating nearby, and start calling the piece they are in the Forlorn Hope. As they approach Jupiter, Stevens eases the Forlorn Hope out of the pack and manages a hard landing on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.

With the remains of the Forlorn Hope, Steve has everything he needs to construct an ultra-radio set capable of reaching the inner worlds and calling for help. But the landing discharged the accumulators, and with no power, they must be recharged before anything else can be done. While Steve uses the ship for raw materials to build a hydro-electric power plant and a power beaming station to recharge the accumulators, Nadia explores the area around where they landed.

She finds Ganymede is Earth-like. She goes out each day to gather plants and animals that they can eat, while Steve struggles to rebuild most of Earth's basic technology from the ground up. He succeeds in building a power plant and recharging the accumulators, and has also completed the ultra-radio except for the high-power output tube, which requires platinum, which they don't have, and must also be sealed in a vacuum. While on a trip away from their base, Steve and Nadia encounter primitive six limbed beings, which they call "Hexans". The Hexans chase them back to the Forlorn Hope, and Steve takes off to avoid being overrun.

Now in space and getting power beamed from the station he built on Ganymede, Steve navigates toward a comet that is in the vicinity of Jupiter at the time, which he remembers contains platinum which he can use for the output tube. Then he can seal the tube in the vacuum of space, and call for help. The comet is heading away from Jupiter, but after a long chase they catch it, and it does have platinum in it. Steve gets the metal he needs and starts building the parts he needs for the tube.

Before he completes the task the Forlorn Hope is attacked by a ship similar to the one that cut up the Arcturus and started their adventure. As the enemy ship begins cutting up the Forlorn Hope, another small globular ship arrives, but this one has a mirrored surface instead of a dull one like the attacking ship. The attacking ship immediately turns its weapon on the newcomer, but the mirror surface reflects the beam. The mirrored ship fires back with homing missiles and destroys the enemy ship.