![]() The TIROS-1 prototype on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. | |
Mission type | Weather satellite |
---|---|
Operator | NASA[1] |
Harvard designation | 1960 β 2 |
COSPAR ID | 1960-002B |
SATCAT no. | 29 |
Mission duration | 75 days (90 days planned) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | TIROS |
Manufacturer | RCA Astro |
Launch mass | 122.5 kilograms (270 lb) |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 1 April 1960, 11:40:09 | GMT
Rocket | Thor DM 18-Able II |
Launch site | Cape Canaveral, LC-17A |
End of mission | |
Last contact | 15 June 1960 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | LEO |
Eccentricity | 0.00401 |
Perigee altitude | 693 kilometres (431 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 750 kilometres (470 mi) |
Inclination | 48.40° |
Period | 99.16 minutes[2] |
Epoch | 1 Apr 1960 11:45:00 |
Instruments | |
two slow-scan visible television camera (wide-angle and narrow-angle) horizon sensor sun angle sensor | |
TIROS-1 (or TIROS-A) was the first full-scale weather satellite (the Vanguard 2 satellite was the first experimental/prototype weather satellite), the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites (TIROS) placed in low Earth orbit.