ESSA-3

The recently-rechristened Environmental Sciences Service Administration (previously the U.S. Weather Bureau) launches, with the help of NASA, weather satellite ESSA-3, the third in a constellation of Earth-observing weather satellites. The timing of the launch is fortunate, as ESSA-3 takes up its station in orbit mere days before the unexpected shutdown of ESSA-1’s camera system. ESSA-3’s own camera system begins to fail in less than a year, and it is deactivated near the end of 1968 due to continued system failures.