This called for a lot more smoke. "You mean, go out there and look at the satellite, in space?"
"Yes, I can't imagine any other way really to figure it out."
He nodded. "You may be right, Mike. But do you know how much it costs to send a manned satellite aloft?"
"Oh," I agreed. "There are cheaper ways. We can beef up every part in that gate, test it much tougher than we already have, and when we get the gate to where all seven thousand components can stand any imaginable strain, we can rebuild the twelve Telstars we haven't launched yet and be pretty sure they won't have switching failures. But that isn't what you asked me."
"We'd have to fix eighteen of them," he said. "The first six are about sixty per cent useless. They'd have to be replaced."
"I still think you should consider sending a man to examine the Telstars in orbit," I suggested.
"Science demands it, eh" he growled.
"No, I was thinking that perhaps a simple repair could be made in space, and that you wouldn't have to launch six extra birds."
He got out of the chair and went to the clothes tree to put on his coat. The elbows were shiny from leaning on his desk. "It might be cheaper at that," he said. "The first six are launched in only two orbits. Three telstars in each orbit, separated by one hundred and twenty degrees. Two launches of a repair man might do it, with careful handling. Is that what you had in mind?"