Re-entered 1970-05-20Debris

WESTFORD NEEDLES

NORAD: 3237
COSPAR: 1963-014BB

OrbitalWiki publishes live orbits for active satellites only. This object is in the full catalogue: who launched it, what it is and its last published orbit are below, but there are no current orbital elements for it here.

Is it working?

Sources agree

Source	What it says	Date
CelesTrak SATCAT	Decayed or deorbited	1970-05-20
GCAT (J. McDowell)	Re-entered	1970-05-20

Each line is one source and what it says. Where they disagree, both are shown; OrbitalWiki does not pick a winner.

Spacecraft

Owner: US Air Force Space Systems Division

From GCAT by Jonathan McDowell (CC BY 4.0), record S03237, checked 2026-11-05. About this source

Launch

Launch date: 1963-05-09
Rocket: Atlas Agena B
Flight: Midas 7
Mission name: Midas ETS-III F2
Launch site: PA, LC1-2
Launched by: US Air Force Space Systems Division
Rocket performance: Success
Launch designator: 1963-014

From the GCAT launch log, launch 1963-014, checked 2026-11-05. About this source

Catalogue record

Object type: Debris
Owner code: US
Launch date: 1963-05-09
Re-entered: 1970-05-20
Period: 103.3 min
Inclination: 83.52°
Apogee: 1,557 km
Perigee: 271 km

From CelesTrak SATCAT, checked 2026-11-05. About this source

Where it came from

Everything from this launch

Debris148 in total, 43 still in orbit
Payload4 in total, 3 still in orbit