1960: From Cape Canaveral the TIROS I, the first picture-taking weather-reconnaissance satellite, launched on a Thor-Able rocket into an orbit expected to last for 50 to 100 years. In the 78-day life of its instruments, the TIROS transmitted almost 23,000 pictures. 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. (NASA IMAGE: TIROS I wide-angle image taken on April 1, 1960 (one of the first TV images of Earth from space)
