TIROS-1

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/tiros-1

  • Pioneer
  • NORAD 29
  • 1960-002B
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where TIROS-1 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Atlantic Ocean

Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches TIROS-1 go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.

Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.

Even at its closest, TIROS-1 is too faint to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth, so no city page carries pass times for it.

Seeing it

There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. It is still up there all the same, going round as it has since it was launched.

Altitude

610 km620 km630 km640 km650 km
TIROS-1, one reading a day from Sep 16, 2026 to Sep 18, 2026. The band runs from the lowest point of the orbit to the highest; the line is the middle of it.

One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on Thor from Cape Canaveral. Source

  2. End of mission

    Its mission ended.

Summary

Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE

Where is TIROS-1?

At 8:07:22 PM UTC TIROS-1 was over the Atlantic Ocean (35.3° S, 38.9° W), 628 km up, moving at 7.55 km/s and in sunlight.

What is TIROS-1?

One of the pioneers of spaceflight in low Earth orbit, in space since Apr 1, 1960; its mission ended in 1960.

Can I see TIROS-1?

No, not with the naked eye: even at its closest, TIROS-1 is too faint to see from anywhere on Earth; what it is now is a relic of the first years in orbit.

General

TIROS-1, an 18-sided drum tiled with solar cells, on a vibration test stand at RCA in Princeton in 1960, two engineers at the controls behind it.
Photograph: NASA (public domain)
Launched
Ended
Remembered for
Being the world’s first successful weather satellite, which gave forecasters their first view of clouds forming around the globe
Operator
NASA, from its Goddard Space Flight Center; RCA built it
Size
a drum 1.07 m across
Mass
122.5 kg
Typical altitude
617 to 649 km
Speed
about 7.54 km/s (27,100 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:07 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:07 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
35.3° S, 38.9° W
Altitude
628 km
Speed
7.55 km/s (27,191 km/h)
Course
north-east
Light
In sunlight until 8:17 PM UTC
Inclination
48.4°
Orbital period
97.4 minutes
Orbits per day
14.79
This orbit
618 to 650 km
In shadow
31 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 1,810 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 4:08 AM, 15 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 4:08 AM, 15 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for TIROS-1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to TIROS-1 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
TIROS-1 is falling about 1 m a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 4:08 AM, 15 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "TIROS 1",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1960-002B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T04:08:01.559328",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.78871116,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00226302,
  "INCLINATION": 48.3783,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 302.7058,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 308.4291,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 51.4591,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 29,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 55589,
  "BSTAR": 0.000065045304,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000027,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}