Small step for man essentially inspiring a work of science fiction (5,5)

'science fiction' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'small step for man essentially inspiring a work' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is found in the answer.
'step' could be 'pace' (synonyms) and 'pace' is present in the answer.
'man' could be 'r' (abbreviation for rook, a chess piece or 'man') and 'r' is present in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
'work' could be 'op' (short for opus) and 'op' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?