The Trouble with Telstar

A line under the title of The Trouble with Telstar, by John Berryman, says the real trouble with communications satellites is the enormous difficulty of repairing even the simplest little trouble, and that you need such a loooong screwdriver. The narrator says that a couple of years back the final design had been approved for a whole sky-full of communications satellites, eighteen to be exact. The narrator says that one of the parts in the design had been a solenoid, part No. M1537, which handled a switching operation too potent for a solid-state switch.

Doc Stone tells the narrator "It is a tough spot, Mike," because he will not hear any talk of faulty assembly. The mission chief insists that it is not safe to put anybody in a satellite who cannot pass the physical, and a space medic keeps saying "Remarkable shape." The narrator writhes and squirms, making every use of the law of conservation of angular momentum until his back is to Nelly, then throws his fancy screwdriver as hard as he can heave it away.