TIROS 1, Launched April 1, 1960, NASA’s first satellite designed to determine if
Earth could be studied from space was TIROS-1. The mission, managed and
operated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was a spiritual predecessor to to
TIROS 1 (Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite), the first weather satellite,
was designed to test the feasibility of obtaining and using TV cloudcover pictures
from satellites.
The TIROS Program (Television Infrared Observation Satellite) was NASA’s first
experimental step to determine if satellites could be useful in the study of the
Earth. At that time, the effectiveness of satellite observations was still unproven.
Since satellites were a new technology, the TIROS Program also tested various
design issues for spacecraft: instruments, data and operational parameters.
The goal was to improve satellite applications for Earth-bound decisions,
such as “should we evacuate the coast because of the hurricane?”.
The TIROS Program’s first priority was the development of a meteorological
satellite information system. Weather forecasting was deemed the most
promising application of space-based observations. TIROS proved
extremely successful, providing the first accurate weather forecasts based
on data gathered from space. TIROS began continuous coverage of the
Earth’s weather in 1962, and was used by meteorologists worldwide.
The program’s success with many instrument types and orbital
configurations lead to the development of more sophisticated
meteorological observation satellites.
