NOAA-1 was a

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ge ...

operated by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA). It was part of a series of satellites called ITOS, or improved

TIROS TIROS, or Television InfraRed Observation Satellite, is a series of early weather satellites launched by the United States, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth, enablin ...

. ITOS-B was released on October 21, 1971, from the

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, with a

Delta rocket Delta is an American versatile family of expendable launch systems that has provided space launch capability in the United States since 1960. Japan also launched license-built derivatives (N-I, N-II, and H-I) from 1975 to 1992. More than 300 ...

. It failed to achieve a successful earth orbit. A malfunction in the

second stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...

launch vehicle caused the spacecraft to reenter the earth's atmosphere about 1 hour after lift-off. ITOS-B was designed to provide improved operational

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

and visual observations of earth cloud cover for use in weather analysis and forecasting. Secondary objectives included obtaining both solar

proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

and global heat balance data on a daily basis. To accomplish these tasks, the sun-synchronous spacecraft carried four cameras - 2 television cameras for automatic picture transmissions (APT) and two advanced vidicon camera system (AVCS) cameras. It also carried a low-resolution flat plate radiometer, a solar proton monitor, and two scanning

radiometer A radiometer or roentgenometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux (power) of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, a radiometer is an infrared radiation detector or an ultraviolet detector. Microwave radiometers operate in the microwave w ...

s that not only could measure emitted IR radiation but could also serve as a backup system for the APT and AVCS cameras. The nearly cubical spacecraft measured . The TV cameras and infrared sensors were mounted on the satellite baseplate with their optical axes directed vertically earthward. The satellite was equipped with three curved solar panels that were folded during launch and were to be deployed after orbit was achieved. Each panel measured over in length when unfolded and was covered with 3420

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s, each by . A dynamics and attitude control system was designed to maintain desired spacecraft orientation through

gyroscopic A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotat ...

principles incorporated into the satellite design.

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

orientation was to be maintained by taking advantage of the precession induced from a momentum flywheel so that the satellite body precession rate of one revolution per orbit would provide the desired 'earth looking' attitude. Minor adjustments in attitude and orientation could be made by means of magnetic coils and by varying the speed of the momentum flywheel.

References

1971 in spaceflight Weather satellites of the United States Spacecraft launched in 1971 {{satellite-stub