CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1999-0064
WESTFORD NEEDLES
WESTFORD NEEDLES (NORAD 20017) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 27 February 1999.
Official dateFragment record
NORAD number
20017
International designator
1963-014EW
Object type
Fragment
Country
United States
Parent launched
9 May 1963Vandenberg
Re-entered (UTC)
27 Feb 1999UTC calendar day
Time since launch
35 years, 9 months13,078 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
83.5°N to 83.5°SFinal inclination 83.5°
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 83.5°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 83.5°N and 83.5°S.
Life in orbit
WESTFORD NEEDLES’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
Also ended on 27 Feb 1999
1 entryFrom the same launch
1963-014
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1999-0064
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1999-0064
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.