TIROS-4 was launched 54 years ago today! One of the Television and InfraRed Observation Satellites, TIROS-4 was designed to test experimental television techniques and infrared equipment in the study of the Earth.
The top and sides of the spacecraft were covered with approximately 9000 1- by 2-cm silicon solar cells, and it was equipped with two independent television camera subsystems for taking cloudcover pictures and three radiometers for measuring radiation from the earth and its atmosphere.
With the exception of the degraded response of the five-channel scanning radiometer, the spacecraft performed normally until May 3, 1962, when one camera failed. On June 10, 1962, the other camera's tape recorder failed. The scanning radiometer provided usable data until June 30, 1962, when its mission ended.
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