WESTFORD NEEDLES *

WESTFORD NEEDLES * is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1963-05-09 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, United States on the Midas ETS-III F2 launch. After more than 63 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 579 km and 3,401 km with an inclination of 88.4°. It travels at approximately 24,857 km/h (6.90 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 7 minutes — that’s roughly 11.34 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1688 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, WESTFORD NEEDLES * poses a potential collision risk to operational satellites in nearby orbits and is continuously monitored by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and other tracking systems.

WESTFORD NEEDLES * orbits at an average altitude of 1,990 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of WESTFORD NEEDLES *’s average altitude, there are currently 9 active payloads and 30 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 88.4°, WESTFORD NEEDLES * passes over latitudes between 88.4°N and 88.4°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 13,196 active satellites in total.