Roger Kuykendall's "We Didn't Do Anything Wrong, Hardly" (short story, humor, free)

This juvenile story has the feel of one of the earlier Arthur Clarke stories - "How We Went to Mars".

A couple of adolescent US kids, one of them superbright, build a spaceship using available materials like discarded refrigerator & TV components, for fun! And go around an adventure ride circling earth a few times!

Title comes from a little good-faith tinkering they do with a Russian satellite in orbit because "it was just a menace to navigation, and the batteries were dead, and it wasn't working right anyway," causing a bit of diplomatic row & a minor mistake they made putting it back.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, May 1959.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B
Listed among the stories from Campbell's Astounding.