CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1997-0260
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 19056) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 17 September 1997.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
19056
International designator
1963-014ED
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
17 Sep 1997UTC calendar day
Time since launch
34 years, 4 months12,550 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
83.3°N to 83.3°SFinal inclination 83.3°
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 83.3°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 83.3°N and 83.3°S.
Life in orbit
WESTFORD NEEDLES’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
Also ended on 17 Sep 1997
2 entriesFrom the same launch
1963-014
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1997-0260
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1997-0260
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.