Nevertheless, we took off after the third bird, and found it glistening in bright sunlight without the help of the searchlight. I thought that was a good omen. But from there on nothing seemed to work right.
We had been aloft about thirty-six hours, and fatigue was setting in. I was clumsy on the steering and had quite a time making contact.
The repair went according to Hoyle, but after I had put the spin back on the bird I found that I had no more steering fuel. I hung about ten or fifteen feet from Telstar Three and maybe eighty feet from Nelly, drifting slowly from both.
"Sid!"
"Roger, Mike."
"This one will have to make it with the girdle on."
"Can't you get it off?"
"I can't get back to it. Steering fuel gone."
"Oh, no!"
"No sweat, Sid. It occludes a small share of the solar generators, but not enough to hurt anything."