“Why give the whole universe the benefit of our ignorance?”
Commander Michael Hayden (Kieron Moore) is scheduled to pilot the first manned spaceship, the “Stardust”, into outer space. His crew consists of Larry Noble (Jimmy Hanley), Jimmy Wheeler (Bryan Forbes) and Lefty Blake (Barry Keegan). At a press briefing, a reporter, Kim Hamilton (Lois Maxwell), questions Hayden about the flight and the space program in general. She believes that going out into space is a waste of money as well as the possibility of the lives that may be lost for a pipedream. Kim manages to talk Haydon into giving her a tour of the launch site and a close-up view of the ship. Kim is still convinced that space travel is a waste of people and money. They agree to disagree.
The night before the flight, Commander Hayden and second in command Larry Noble are called back to headquarters for a meeting with Professor Blandford (Walter Hudd) and Captain Ross (Donald Gray). The two men find out that they are going to be joined by Professor Merrity (Donald Wolfit) on the flight. Also on board will be a Tritonium bomb, known as T1. The T1 is more powerful than the hydrogen bomb and cannot be tested on Earth. Merrity will be going along with the crew to prime jettison and detonate the bomb. The test of the bomb will be monitored around the world and will act as a deterrent to war. Hayden is not happy with these changes, but the War office is paying a lot of the bills, so Hayden has no choice.
As Hayden and Noble are being briefed, Kim is stowing away on the Stardust. Kim is discovered after the ship is in space. Things are bad enough when they find the stowaway but when the propulsion jets on the bomb fail, the ship’s magnetic attraction pulls the bomb back to the ship. There’s no way they can escape the bomb, and they are running out of time.
“Satellite in the Sky” was released in 1956 and was directed by Paul Dickson. It is a British science fiction film and is Britain's first color science fiction film.
The movie is pretty standard for British science fiction of the fifties. The suspense is not exactly nail-biting and the script a little wordy but the special effects are pretty good. Especially notable are the miniatures of the ship and the launch ramp. The ship itself is impressive both in the painted mattes and the miniatures. Its observation window is an interesting, although impractical bit of fancy. Of course, the science in the movie is very much science fiction but that adds to the fun of an outer space movie from this era. The acting and the dialogue may be a little stiff, but the special effects make up for it and make the movie an enjoyable film to watch.
Stock Footage is used of the Avro Vulcan and the Folland Midge planes. Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny in a whole bunch of James Bond films from 1962 to 1985.