First Weather Satellite Launched 50 Years Ago

stinkbomb writes "Fifty years ago today, the world's first weather satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and opened a new and exciting dimension in weather forecasting. Top leaders from NOAA and NASA hailed the milestone as an example of their agencies' strong partnership and commitment to flying the best satellites today and beyond."

Re:Space Junk

[Tablizer]

New parachute-like devices are being proposed that create more drag for spent rockets and satellites so that they come down sooner:

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/03/cubesail-parach.php [dvice.com]

It won't work for lost parts and collision debris, but it's a start.
     

Re:Not a Soviet first?

[Trepidity]

They were a bit ahead early on, but not by that much. Here's an incomplete timeline of some firsts:

October 1957: Sputnik 1, first satellite [USSR]
November 1957: Sputnik 2, first space capsule capable of sustaining life (contained a dog) [USSR]
January 1958: Explorer 1, first U.S. satellite, first to carry scientific instruments [USA]
March 1958: Vanguard 1, first solar-powered satellite [USA]
May 1958: Sputnik 3, first Soviet satellite to carry scientific instruments (but tape recorder failed, so collected no data) [USSR]
December 1958: Project SCORE, first communications satellite [USA]
February 1959: Vanguard 2, first weather satellite (though didn't collect much useful data) [USA]
April 1960: TIROS-1, first successful weather satellite [USA]
August 1960: Sputnik 5, first roundtrip of living animals (40 mice) in a capsule [USSR]
April 1961: Vostok 1, first human in space [USSR]
May 1961: Freedom 7, first American in space [USA]

what is really cool now is ...

[thephydes]

..... that the average Joe Blow with a basic receiver and antenna and suitable software on his/her computer can pick up the weather pix for themselves. Go on you lazy bastards google it yourselves - "weather satellite receiver kit", "turnstile antenna", "weather satellite receiving antenna" - and get the gen from our favourite data company.

Weather Satellites are indispensabe now

[VoiceOfSanity]

TIROS 1 was one of those major milestones that we take for granted today. With today's coverage via the GOES and POES (Polar Orbiting Environment Satellite, along with the older ESSA and NIMBUS satellite systems from the mid 1960's and 1970's) weather forecasting took a giant step forward from the late 1950's to today. Just as an example, take hurricane forecasting. Back in the 1950's and early 1960's, discovery of a hurricane forming would have been from a ship report in the Gulf of Mexico, reports from the Leeward Islands, or a Hurricane Hunter randomly coming across the storm during routine patrols. Once satellites were added into the mix, the discovery of the storm became easier with increased advance notice for populated areas. What used to be 12 hours warning for an area (New Orleans, Hurricane Betsy 1965) became 35 hours warning (New Orleans/Biloxi, Hurricane Katrina, 2005). This made a significant difference not only in being able forecast the movement of the storms, but also to get the warnings out to evacuate people and save lives.

The weather satellite is perhaps the best example of how our technology has improved our lifestyle overall.

Re:Questionable "first" anyway

[calidoscope]

You would be surprised how little it can cost to track satellites. Ever hear about the satellite tracking work done by an English school teacher and his students? They had both deduced that some Soviet sats were photo recon and that the Soviets had a new launch site.

To be useful, a weather sat needs to download the data in near real-time and AFAIK there was no record of any Soviet bird doing that before Tiros.

Re:Not a Soviet first?

[DerekLyons]

Its harder to get good photographs of weather at high latitudes because you either have to do it from high altitude and an oblique angle, or from low altitude in a high inclination orbit.

You missed options three and four. You can also use a high inclination Molnyia orbit [centennialofflight.gov]. (Which the Russians have used at various times.) You can also use a polar orbit (which most US birds use), which can get photos every couple of hours.
 
So high latitude weather photography is really only difficult if you choose to make it so.