From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!karn
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: Prediction of Cosmos Crash Time
Article-I.D.: eagle.756
Posted: Mon Jan 31 22:38:20 1983
Received: Wed Feb  2 02:38:31 1983
References: u1100a.286

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