toense@Nbs-Pl@sri-unix (11/13/82)
From: Robert Toense <toense@Nbs-Pl> Date: 4 Nov 1982 9:49:43 EST (Thursday) There are 24*60*60 seconds in a solar day. For celestial navigation, you must use a sidereal day or 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.09 seconds of mean time. The early orbital flights lasted about 4.5 hours which means that the earth rotated about one quarter degree farther than you thought during this time. At the latitudes where these flights came down, this is close to 15 nautical miles. -R. Toense