Space Crazy Comics: Fluke!

This story, from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #9, is not about a whale's tail. Neither is it about a parasite, a fish, or anything else mentioned on this disambiguation page.

It is also not about the various things you're likely to see in a Google search.

But that's neither here nor there. Let's get going.

The story opens with the launch of a huge satellite, the Titania, purportedly the biggest satellite ever put into orbit.

The satellite is separated from its rocket in this rather amusing image.

The images Titania sends back are also rather comical-look closely at this panel for a rather dated (at best) rendering of the Earth's surface.

Then, something alarming happens.

(Reminder: Meteors are the flashes made by objects falling through the Earth's atmosphere.) It seems that the satellite is in trouble, until...

Instead of destroying Titania, the meteoroids cling to it, creating an ever-growing object in orbit.

(Reminder: Meteorites are the debris left on the surface by objects that have fallen through the Earth's atmosphere from space.) While nobody is sure what will happen next, the head scientist decides that action must be taken.

Note the statement is somewhat ambiguous-is he saying "We can't wait to see what Titania will do next?" or "We can't wait to see that H-bomb blow some (expletive deleted) up!!"?

Sadly, I messed up the next image a bit, but we can still see what's going on:

I find it hilarious that the crazy space rocks are still flaming (of course, they shouldn't really have been flaming in the first place...).

They're still working on the missile.

Unfortunately, the missle missile misses, due to a misscalculation.

Fortunately, there is a deus ex machina, though sadly it makes no sense.

It moves out to a vaguely more Moonlike orbit.

I just have to ask, where the heck did all the space rocks come from, anyway? It's hecka weird.

But there's one last moment in the story: The titular fluke. (What, a satellite going all Borg and assimilating everything in Earth's orbit wasn't enough of one for ya?)

Yes, they really just did that.

It's kind of an interesting story for historical reasons if nothing else.

I mean, doesn't this sound like the kind of story that would be spawned as a direct response to the way people felt about Sputnik launching? It does to me.

-Signing off.