naming of the satellites can become confusing because some of them use the same name as the over-seeing organization, such as "ESSA" for TOS satellites overseen by the Environmental Science Services Administration (for example, ESSA-1) and "NOAA" (for example, NOAA-M) for later TIROS-series satellites overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. TIROS-1 (A): launched on 1 April 1960, suffered electrical system failure on 15 June 1960 TIROS-2 (B): launched on 23 November 1960, failed on 22 January 1961 TIROS-3 (C): launched on 12 July 1961, deactivated on 28 February 1962 TIROS-4 (D): launched on 8 February 1962, failed on 30 June 1962 (both cameras failed earlier) TIROS-5 (E): launched on 19 June 1962, failed on 13 May 1963 TIROS-6 (F): launched on 18 September 1962, failed on 21 October 1963 TIROS-7 (G): launched on 19 June 1963, deactivated on 3 June 1968 TIROS-8 (H): launched on 23 December 1963, deactivated on 1 July 1967 TIROS-9 (I): launched on 22 January 1965, failed on 15 February 1967. First Tiros satellite in near-polar orbit TIROS-10 (OT-1): launched on 2 July 1965, deactivated on 1 July 1967. As of June 2009, all TIROS satellites launched between 1960 and 1965 (with the exception of TIROS-7) were still in orbit. TIROS Operational System ESSA-1 (OT-3) ESSA-2 (OT-2) ESSA-3 (TOS-A) ESSA-4 (TOS-B) ESSA-5 (TOS-C) ESSA-6 (TOS-D) ESSA-7 (TOS-E) ESSA-8 (TOS-F) ESSA-9 (TOS-G) ITOS/TIROS-M TIROS-M (ITOS-1): launched on 23 January 1970 NOAA-1 (ITOS-A): launched on 11 December 1970 ITOS-B launched on 21 October 1971, unusable orbit ITOS-C NOAA-2 (ITOS-D): launched on 15 October 1972 ITOS-E launched on 16 July 1973, failed to orbit NOAA-3 (ITOS-F): launched on 6 November 1973 NOAA-4 (ITOS-G): launched on 15 November 1974 NOAA-5 (ITOS-H): launched 29 July 1976 TIROS-N TIROS-N (Proto-flight): Launched 13 October 1978 into a 470-nmi orbit; deactivated on 27 February 1981. NOAA-6 (NOAA-A prior to launch): Launched 27 June 1979 into a 450-nmi orbit. The HIRS, a primary mission sensor, failed 19 September 1983. The satellite exceeded its two-year designed lifetime by almost six years when deactivated on 31 March 1987. NOAA-B: Launched 29 May 1980. It failed to achieve a usable orbit because of a booster engine anomaly. NOAA-7 (C): Launched 23 June 1981 into a 470-nmi orbit; deactivated June 1986. NOAA-12 (D): Launched 14 May 1991 into a 450-nmi AM orbit, out of sequence (see below). Placed in standby mode on 14 December 1998, when NOAA-15