Weather satellite of rotation and its elliptical orbit kept it from collecting a notable amount of useful data. The Explorer VI and VII satellites also contained weather-related experiments. The first weather satellite to be considered a success was TIROS-1, launched by NASA on April 1, 1960. TIROS operated for 78 days and proved to be much more successful than Vanguard 2. TIROS paved the way for the Nimbus program, whose technology and findings are the heritage of most of the Earth-observing satellites NASA and NOAA have launched since then. Beginning with the Nimbus 3 satellite in 1969, temperature information through the tropospheric
ColorGraphics Weather Systems a whiteboard for graphics, and later hand-photographing satellite cloud imagery with a Bolex camera to produce the first cloud-movement animations. Kelly and several of his colleagues also produced weather forecasting software. In 1974 he was promoted to chief meteorologist at WKOW, and at the same time started Weather Central to sell and operate their software for smaller organizations such as ski resorts and local highway departments. ColorGraphics was formed in 1979 as a partnership between Kelly and Richard Daly. Kelly and Daly had both worked in the University of Wisconsin's Space Science and Engineering department, developers of the McIDAS weather