Evening star., 1961-11-23
Tiros Weather Satellite
Still Amazing Experts
BY WILLIAM HINES
star Science Writer

star science WRITER
The Tiros weather satellites
continue to amaze the experts.
One of them-Tiros H.
passed a significant milestone
today by marking its first an
niversary in orbit with its
televison camera still sending
"usable" weather pictures. This
Is about four times the life ex-
pectancy of the hat-box shaped
'Television Infra-Red ObServa-
ton Satellite" launched last
November %.
Success Of the Tiros program
is now assured, Government
scientists say, and the future
of weather observation in
space is equally bright. BY
the end of next year the Ma
tional Operational Meteorolog-
ical Satellite System" is eX-
pected to be on a permanent
basis.
First Project to Pay Off
Thus. Tiros is the first
satellite project undertaken by
either America or Russia which
has proved its practical value
and has started to pay off.
Tiros weather data only min
utes to a few hours old is now
included in briefing kits
handed to transoceanic COM
mercial jet pilots at Idlewild
and Honolulu airports.
BY the mid-1960s a success
sor program to Tiros, called
Nimbus, is expected to be
proved out. Full-scale opera
ton of the national system will
cost about $50 million year.
Comparatively Cheap
This outlay is peanuts by.
space standards. Next year the
United States will be spend
ing about $3.5 billion on
civilian space efforts alone,
most of it in connection with
President Kennedy's 'man-to-
the-moon" project. 1t will
cost $40 billion to land the
first three-man team on the
moon.
BY contrast, it cost about
So million to develop the first
Tiros satellite. About S22 mil
lion has been spent on Tiros
to date. The cost of individual
weather observations from
Tiros I during its useful life
in mid-1960 has been calcu-
lated at about is cents per OBJ
Servation.
No Launch Failure
DR.. Harry Wexler, research
chief for the Weather Bureau,
says he has never seen any,
thing like" the Tiros program.
He attributes its success partly
to luck (there has never been
a launching failure) and part
" to effective cooperation be-
tween interested agencies Of
Government.
The agencies involved are
the Department of Defense,
which provides the launch ia
cilitieS, the National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration,
which furnishes the satellites.
and the Weather Bureau, which
disseminates the information.
The Federal Aviation Agency
also sits in by virtue of its
membership on a National Co.
Ordinating Committee for Avia-
ton Meteorology."
Foreigners Use Data
Not only Americans, but for
eigners as well, are using the
weather data from TiroS. A
Today international Meteoro-
logical Satellite Worksh op
broke up here yesterday with
expressions of good will and
high hopes all around. New
Zealanders, Irish, French and
Dutch experts were mon g
those who said they had put
Tiros' data to good use already.
Information from Tiros sat-
elites is obtained by stations
at Wallops Island, near Chin
colleague, Va, and Point Mugu,
near Oxnard, Calf. Data is
disseminated worldwide in the
form of radioed facsimile maps
and coded information from
which similar maps can be
drawn. The code is available
to all countries.
Tells of SOS Plans
DR.. Morris Topper, NASA Of
ficial in charge of the weather
satellite program, briefed the
National Rocket Club here yes
terday. He said that by the
last half of the SOS high al
titude satellites called "Aeros"
will hover in apparently sta
tionary orbits to provide con-
tinuous surveys of world
weather.
Unlike all other satellites ef-
forts from Vanguard on, the
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