CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
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Entry no.
1989-0826

OPS 5268 (CALSPHERE 4)

OPS 5268 (CALSPHERE 4) (NORAD 4958) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 20 September 1989, after 18 years, 7 months in orbit.

Official date
NORAD number
4958
International designator
1971-012D
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
United States
Launched
17 Feb 1971Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
20 Sep 1989UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
18 years, 7 months6,790 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
81.6°N to 81.6°SFinal inclination 98.4°
Mass
1 kg
Operator
NRL
Built by
NRL
Bus
NRL 10"
Programme
NRL Cal

Where it came down

Latitude band its orbit allowed
Exact position not recorded

No position was recorded for this re-entry. Its final orbit, inclined at 98.4°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 81.6°N and 81.6°S.

Life in orbit

18 years, 7 months

OPS 5268 (CALSPHERE 4)’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.

From the same launch

1971-012
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Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1989-0826
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