CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1981-0628
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 2638) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 15 December 1981.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
2638
International designator
1963-014AN
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
15 Dec 1981UTC calendar day
Time since launch
18 years, 7 months6,795 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
84.3°N to 84.3°SFinal inclination 84.3°
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 84.3°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 84.3°N and 84.3°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/1981-0628
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1981-0628
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.