John Brudy 31 min read

To Amos Jordan, Secretary for Cislunar Navigation, no situation is unsolvable, there are rules for everything. Except, maybe, this thing: a beloved old satellite that must come down.

John Brudy's 1960 story mines wry hard-SF comedy from bureaucracy, sentiment, and orbital mechanics. Clever, genial golden-age SF. Read it for a droll tale where a by-the-book official runs headlong into public affection for a historic hunk of space hardware.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

31 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Mel Varga