CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1996-0069
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 21748) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 18 June 1996.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
21748
International designator
1963-014FJ
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
18 Jun 1996UTC calendar day
Time since launch
33 years, 1 month12,094 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
83.7°N to 83.7°SFinal inclination 83.7°
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 83.7°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 83.7°N and 83.7°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/1996-0069
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1996-0069
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.