As mentioned by others, the early sci-fi movies seem to have the idea that when you go up a bit you leave the Earth's gravity field. No. What about the Moon? Isn't it held by our gravity? Do the tides just appear by themselves? Rider to the Stars (1954) also had that gravity concept. These movies confuse a lack of gravity with an orbit where you can go 18,000 mph just outside the Earth's atmosphere. You are falling and you miss the Earth. Why do the astronauts float in the Space Shuttle? There is no gravity, all the kids say. The other issue is the statement made in the movie that outside the atmosphere of the Earth magnetic forces are much stronger. It may be true that a magnetic force is attenuated by something placed between 2 magnets. Even a piece of cardboard should reduce it a bit, and air might reduce it a tiny bit, but I never heard of magnetic forces increase much in a vacuum. The writers seem to get confused. So what if 2 guys grabbed the bomb, used the jet packs to push it away, and then zipped back to the ship. A small poof of the rocket motor should get the ship further away. They seemed to try to push the bomb once but it drifted slowly back. They could have a rope attached to themselves and the ship if necessary. The bomb would have to be really highly magnetized for it to act like it did. The explanation was that the ship is really big compared to the bomb. I can't believe that in 9 hours they could not have come up with a simple plan - steer bomb a distance away, zip back, use low thrust to get the ship further away, then pedal to the metal. The last point - the bomb guy freaked out when they were going up. He appeared to be middle aged, not in great shape, and never had the slightest training or any kind of medical clearance.
Review of Satellite in the Sky
