Nimbus 1, Card No 14 (RaceIntoSpace 1971)
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Card No. 14: Nimbus 1
Nimbus 1, Launched from Cape Kennedy on Aug 20, 1964, was the first of America's second-generation experimental weather satellites, superseding the earlier series of Tiros satellites.
Unlike the latter, which were spin-stabilised, Nimbus 1 was stabilised so that its experiments remained pointed at the Earth.
It was placed to an elliptical, 263 by 579 mile path around the Earth instead of the circular 575 mile orbit planned. 27,000 pictures of excellent quality, covering the entire Earth, were synthesised at a large number of picture receiving stations during 26 days of active life before power failure terminated its career.
