TIROS-1 was the first successful weather satellite launched into orbit.
The Television Infrared Observation Satellite-1 was launched by the United States on April 1, 1960, from Cape Canaveral. Its name came from Television Infrared Observation Satellite, although its early television cameras mainly demonstrated that satellites could observe cloud patterns from space.
TIROS-1 transmitted thousands of pictures during its brief operational life, revealing cloud systems over large areas that ground stations could not see at once. These images helped establish satellite observation as a central tool in weather forecasting.
TIROS-1 is sometimes confused with Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, launched in 1957, or Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. Neither was designed as a weather satellite. Later TIROS spacecraft carried improved cameras and infrared instruments, making round-the-clock global monitoring increasingly practical.