TIROS-1

TIROS-1
	The TIROS-1 prototype on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Mission type	Weather satellite
Operator	NASA
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
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 TIROS-2 →

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.

^ "TIROS". NASA Science. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
^ "TIROS 1". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved November 14, 2020.