The United States launched TIROS, the first weather satellite, in 1960. This was our senior year at John R. Rogers. US citizens were happy about any, rare, successful launch. Recall that this was little more than two years after the Soviets ate our political lunch by launching Sputnik. We gained on them with TIROS, however.
TIROS may have been the first satellite with immediate, understandable, practical utility for us - the masses - US or Soviet. That thing could actually see weather! This was a big deal. Until then, we relied upon limited surface observation or ad-hoc reports from aircraft. TIROS only lasted 78 days, but it paved the way for the current vast array of helpful orbiting technology.
We depend upon this armada for storm-tracking, cheap long-distance communication, military intelligence, broad-band entertainment, and even knowing upon which square yard of dirt we're standing - the GPS. Orbiting functional payloads depend upon etherial concepts of higher math, and the application of far-out theories of physics such as quantum mechanics and general relativity.
For example, your $120 GPS must compensate for the observable issue that time is relative, not constant, for objects moving rapidly relative to one-another. Thank Albert Einstein. Your GPS system measures speed-of-light signal arrival times that vary according to distance, while being distorted by relativity, atmospheric variation, and bouncing off objects. Your little box depends upon seeing at least four satellites, each having an atomic clock set to within a few billionths of a second of each of the others. These extremely expensive clocks emmbody practical quantum mechanics, a counter-intuitive physical theory of the extremely minute.
Your $120 GPS has to know that exact nano-seconds time value maintained in those satellites. How can this be, for only $120? Here, the fourth satellite and some clever math correct your cheap clock to the time held in those expensive clocks in space. Calculations of formulas that embody relativity, geometry, and calculus, execute within a single silicon chip in your little GPS. Your battery-driven chip exceeds the compute power and storage of the room-sized digital computer I first encountered at Michigan State University just after graduating from Rogers.
The launch of Sputnik triggered a fruitful emphasis on the sciences and mathematics education. I'd never claim that the United States conceived all the practical applications of those mind-bending theories, but I think that the US space program produced a wonderful container of practical applications of those theories for our benefit.
TIROS was the first practical space application (or one of the first). It launched exactly 49 years ago - today. Next year (2010) is the half-century mark for that launch that occurred just before our own graduation launch. What day is today, the publication date of this story? April Fool's Day! But, please, ... this story is no hoax. Space technology, GPS, and their backing science are beneficial and true. We were there for the beginning.