Tiros 1 launch. Lift-off of a Thor/Able rocket from Cape Canaveral on 1st April 1960, carrying the first Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (Tiros 1). The Tiros programme was run jointly by NASA and the US Department of Defense to develop a meteorological satellite. Tiros 1 was placed into a 722km x 677km orbit at an inclination of 48.4 degrees, with an orbital period of 98.8 minutes. Tiros 1 returned 22,952 cloud-cover images, its last transmission being on 17th June 1960.