8:02 A.M.
It also seemed perfectly natural that there should be bulldozer operators , surveyors , steelworkers , concrete men and so on , all comfortably at breakfast in the construction camp for the project . Everything seemed normal everywhere . Up to the time the Alaskan installation reported something strange in space , the state of things generally was neither alarming nor consoling . But at 8:02 A.M. Pacific time , the situation changed . At that time Alaska reported an unscheduled celestial object of considerable size , high out of atmosphere and moving with surprising slowness for a body in space . Its course was parabolic and it would probably land somewhere in South Dakota . It might be a bolide -- a large , slow-moving meteorite .