TIROS 9
Country: United States of America
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
TIROS 9 launched on January 22, 1965 with a cartwheel configuration and cameras mounted on opposite sides of the spacecraft. The arrangement differed from earlier TIROS camera layouts. A launcher problem placed it in an unintended elliptical orbit, but the mission still produced a landmark collection of global cloud observations.
An imperfect orbit could still produce useful science
NASA describes a 450-picture cloud mosaic associated with February 13, 1965. The achievement was assembling observations into a broad view of Earth's weather, not returning one photograph that captured the entire planet at a single instant. The spacecraft was eventually deactivated on June 12, 1968.
Camera orientation matters as much as the map below
The cartwheel design reminds us that instrument viewing direction is a separate part of an observing system. A ground track shows where the spacecraft passes, not the complete camera footprint. Reconstructing a historical image requires its time and viewing geometry rather than a present-day prediction for the surviving object.
Mission reference: NASA: TIROS-9 cartwheel configuration and mission history. Editorial review: .
The global mosaic took about a day to collect
The contemporary NASA mosaic report gives an observation interval from 05:20 GMT on February 13 to 05:40 GMT on February 14, 1965. Different parts of the composite therefore represent different moments. It is a global assembly, not a simultaneous global exposure, and clouds can evolve between the component observations.
Reference: NASA: TIROS-9 global mosaic observation interval.
How to read a seam in a weather composite
The documented collection interval gives a practical caution for interpreting this mosaic: adjacent image areas need not have been observed together. Before treating a boundary or changing cloud pattern as a physical discontinuity, examine the source-image times and assembly. A seamless-looking presentation cannot remove the time differences in the underlying observations.
Reference: NASA: interpreting the assembled TIROS-9 observations.
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 705 km at perigee to 2,558 km at apogee, a difference of 1,853 km. The orbital period is about 118.9 minutes. Eccentricity 0.11570 shows why a single altitude cannot describe the whole path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.26 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.
Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.
Ground track is not sensor coverage
An inclination of 96.41 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 83.6 degrees north and south. This is a retrograde orbit, moving against the direction of Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.
Accuracy and missing information
The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.
Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 978 · GCAT: S00978 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.
Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)