CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1968-0146
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 3175) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 21 May 1968.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
3175
International designator
1963-014AY
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
21 May 1968UTC calendar day
Time since launch
5 years1,839 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
84.0°N to 84.0°SFinal inclination 84.0°
Where it came down
Latitude band its orbit allowedExact position not recorded
No position was recorded for this re-entry. Its final orbit, inclined at 84.0°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 84.0°N and 84.0°S.
Life in orbit
WESTFORD NEEDLES’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1963-014
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1968-0146
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1968-0146
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.