In this paper, we study a nonlinear two-point boundary value problem on semi-infinite interval that describes the unsteady gas equation. The solution of the mentioned ordinary differential equation (ODE) is investigated by means of the radial basis function (RBF) collocation method. The RBF reduces the solution of the above-mentioned problem to the solution of a system of algebraic equations and finds its numerical solution. To examine the accuracy and stability of the approach, we transform the mentioned problem into another nonlinear ODE which simplifies the original problem. The comparisons are made between the results of the present work and the numerical method by shooting method combined with the Runge–Kutta technique. It is found that our results agree well with those by the numerical method, which verifies the validity of the present work.