CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Needles from the West Ford project compared to a stamp . Project West Ford (also known as Westford Needles and Project Needles ) was a test carried out by Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Lincoln Laboratory on behalf of the United States Military in 1961 and 1963 to create an artificial ionosphere above the Earth. [1] This was done to solve a major weakness that had been identified in US military communications. [2] 1 History 2 Status 3 Launches 4 References History [ edit ] Westford satellite exhibit at the Udvar-Hazy center At the height of the Cold War , all international communications were either sent through undersea cables or bounced off the natural ionosphere . The United States Military was concerned that the Soviets might cut those cables, forcing ...