TIROS-1

A real TIROS satellite, the design that flew as TIROS-1, on a vibration test at RCA in Princeton, New Jersey, 1960 The drum-shaped body, covered in solar cells, held two small television cameras pointed at Earth. TIROS-1 went up on April 1, 1960, and became the first successful weather satellite. In about two and a half months it sent back tens of thousands of cloud pictures, and those pictures showed for the first time from above how big storms wrap into spirals.