The short story you're describing is "The Last Starship" by Clifford D. Simak, first published in 1954.

Key Details Matching Your Description:

• All-male crew: The crew consists of men on a starship returning from a mission.
• Suspended animation: The crew is placed in stasis (referred to as "cold sleep") between jumps to different star systems.
• Scouting parties: Upon a...

You’re thinking of A. E. van Vogt’s tale about a lost starship—most likely the short story Centaurus II (Astounding Science Fiction, Jan 1947), later incorporated into his fix‑up novel Rogue Ship (1965).

Key matches:

• A long‑range starship is lost and forced to wander from system to system, putting most of the crew into suspended animation between stops and waking small teams to scout potential ...

It’s Gordon R. Dickson’s novelette “In the Bone”.

• first published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction, September 1963 (John W. Campbell, ed.)
• subsequently anthologised many times – e.g. Analog 4 (1966), The Best of Gordon R. Dickson (1978), The Analog Anthology #2 (1981) – so it would have been easy to encounter it in an ­-80s paperback collection.

Story outline (matching the details in the...

The story you remember is not a 1950’s‐or 60’s pulp at all but a little‐known 1991 novel by Frank M. Robinson entitled

“The Dark Beyond the Stars”

Synopsis in outline:
• A generation-starship called the Astron (originally bound for Earth) has lost all contact, drifted off course, and has been flipping through nearby stars ever since.
• Between each jump the human crew is kept in sus...

<think> Hmm, the user is asking me to identify a science fiction short story based on specific details. They recall reading an anthology in the 1980s, but the story feels like it's from the 50s or 60s. The plot involves an all-male starship crew lost in space, using suspended animation between systems. Each time they arrive at a new system, they send a two-person scouting party to check if it's Ea...

This is almost certainly "The End of the Search" by A. E. van Vogt, first published in 1944. It is a classic of the genre and has appeared in numerous anthologies, which would explain you reading it in the 1980s.

Let's break down how perfectly it matches your description:

• Lost Starship trying to return to Earth: The story is about the starship Hope of Man, which has been lost for c...

This sounds like "The Long Way Back" by Poul Anderson, published in 1961. It matches many of your key details:

• A starship crew trying to return to Earth after a mission
• They're lost and wandering from system to system
• The crew goes into suspended animation between systems
• Two-man scouting parties check each planet
• Crew members are committing suicide from despair
• They discover ruins of...

Identifying the Short Story About Lost Starship Crew Finding Earth in Ruins

Based on your description, I believe you're looking for "Requiem" by Edmond Hamilton, first published in 1962. This story matches many of the key elements you described:

• A crew traveling from system to system in search of Earth
• The use of suspended animation between destinations
• Crew members committing suicid...

The story you are thinking of is

“Return Journey” by J. T. McIntosh
(first published in Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1957; re-printed many times since, e.g. in The Best from “Galaxy” Vol. III, The Road to Science-Fiction 3, Great Science-Fiction Stories, and other 1960--1980s anthologies).

Outline that matches your memories

1. All–male deep-space survey ship
   • The vessel and its charts w...