CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1987-0473
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 3251) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 17 October 1987.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
3251
International designator
1963-014BR
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
17 Oct 1987UTC calendar day
Time since launch
24 years, 5 months8,927 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
—
Where it came down
Not on recordNo position was recorded for this re-entry. Its final orbit is not on record.
Life in orbit
WESTFORD NEEDLES’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
Also ended on 17 Oct 1987
14 entries1987-0468WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0469WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0470WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0471WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0472WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0474WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0475WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0476WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0477WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0478WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0479WESTFORD NEEDLES1987-0480WESTFORD NEEDLES+2 more
From the same launch
1963-014
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1987-0473
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1987-0473
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.