Celebrating 65 Years of the World’s First Weather Satellite
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On April 1, 1960, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched TIROS-1, the world’s first successful meteorological satellite.
Nearly 68 years ago, on October 4, 1957, the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to be successfully placed in orbit around Earth. This feat ushered in the Space Age and sparked a space race between the United States and its Cold War rival.
This scramble for spaceflight superiority led to the establishment of our nation’s early space programs, and to the launch of Explorer-1 in 1958, the first operational U.S. satellite.
The United States’ earliest attempts to see Earth’s weather from space also began in the 1950s. Several experimental programs were developed and, by 1959, a pioneering weather exploration mission made its way to space onboard the Explorer VII satellite.
Then on April 1, 1960, NASA launched the Television Infrared Observation Satellite ( TIROS-1 ), the world’s first successful weather satellite. Weighing approximately 270 pounds and carrying two television cameras and two video recorders, the satellite provided weather forecasters their first-ever view of cloud formations as they developed around the globe.
“It really was a milestone in the history of weather observation,” said Stephen Volz , Ph.D., Assistant Administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “TIROS-1 changed our perspective. Up to that point, we were very local in our understanding and our interpretation of weather phenomena.”
Watch this 40th-anniversary video from NOAA’s archives: TIROS: 40 Years of Discovery
TIROS-1 orbited 450 miles above Earth and communicated with two command and data acquisition stations. When the satellite was in range of a station and the data was read out, the images (up to 32 could be recorded for playback) were recorded on 35-mm film for making prints.
read more at nesdis.noaa.gov.
