1962 · Active Communications Satellite · Work 1261 of 1,871
A test laboratory in New Jersey on a June afternoon, warm sunlight slanting through tall steel-framed windows across a pale linoleum floor, on a turning test pedestal a satellite sphere about eighty-seven centimetres across, built of white riveted faceted panels set with rectangular fields of dark blue solar cells shimmering violet, around its equator two bands of small rectangular openings with short antenna rods, on its crown a coiled wire helix antenna, beside it a grey trolley of test instruments with blank faces and plain marks, a technician's hands in white nylon gloves fitting a cable connector at the base, a rust-red domed cover resting on a bench behind.