In Green Lantern #16 (Aug 1962), we get a complex back-up story wherein Hal Jordan explains to Pie-Face the story that the Power Ring told him about why Abin Sur was using a spaceship when he died. Got all that? Yeah, me neither. Get ready for some made-up name soup!
Incorporeal energy beings called Larifars attacked the dominant race of beings on the planet Athmoora, orbiting the star-sun of Pandara. Abin Sur battled the Larifars and won, imprisoning all but one of them. This one Larifar, called Balzona, followed Abin Sur to his home planet, Ungara. There, he triggered a catastrophe to draw Green Lantern out into the open, then waited until night to take Abin Sur over.
However, the alien did not know the rules of the Power Ring, that it needed to be charged every 24 hours, etc. Abin Sur used this to trick the alien into procuring him a spaceship in which he would travel back to Athmoora to free his fellows.
However, just as Abin Sur was able to free himself and defeat Balzona (imprisoning it with his fellow Larifars), his ship encountered a yellow radiation belt around Earth that caused his ship to fatally crash, and the rest you know from GL’s origin.