1960-04-01 USA Tiros 1

A TIROS-1 first weather satellite launch cover from "Sarzin", postmarked at Port Canaveral with a hand cancel on April 1, 1960.

TIROS-1, short for Television Infrared Observation Satellite, was launched from Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral at 6:40 a.m. EST on April 1, 1960, aboard a Thor-Able II rocket. It was NASA's first experimental satellite specifically designed to determine whether satellites could provide useful observations of Earth's weather.

TIROS-1 was launched aboard a Thor-Able II rocket and carried two television cameras designed to photograph Earth’s cloud cover from orbit. Operating for approximately 78 days, the satellite returned 19,389 usable images and demonstrated for the first time the practical value of satellite observations for weather forecasting.

(Reference from TIROS-1)