sdo (02/01/83)
I read one prediction the day before the crash which narrowed the time to between 6:00 pm and 8:17 am the next day. What's with this 8:17 stuff?? How can you not know an answer but still predict one side of the range to the exact minute? Scott Orshan Bell Labs Piscataway 201-981-3064 houxm!u1100a!sdo
karn (02/01/83)
I suspect that the 8:17 number wasn't exactly as significant as the number of "significant digits" implies. One scenario: the orbital period at that point is 85.7 minutes, a likely figure. An "official source" says re-entry will probably occur "sometime in the next ten orbits or so". A journalist multiplies 85.7 by 10 and comes up with 14 hours, 17 minutes. Voila! Phil