CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1971-0111
IRIS (ESRO 2B)
IRIS (ESRO 2B) (NORAD 3233) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 8 May 1971, after 2 years, 11 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
3233
International designator
1968-041A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
ESRO
Launched
17 May 1968Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
8 May 1971UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
2 years, 11 months1,086 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
82.7°N to 82.7°SFinal inclination 97.3°
Mass
74 kg
Operator
ESTEC
Built by
HSD
Bus
ESRO 2
Programme
ESRO
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 97.3°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 82.7°N and 82.7°S.
Life in orbit
2 years, 11 monthsIRIS (ESRO 2B)’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1968-041
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1971-0111
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1971-0111
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.