In 1977, the first Meteosat satellite took its place in geostationary orbit 36 000 km above Earth and laid the foundations for European and world cooperation in meteorology that continues to this day.

This animation shows the first images of Earth captured by the Meteosat first and second generation satellites ranging from 9 December 1977 (Meteosat-1) all the way to 4 August 2015 (MSG-4/Meteosat-11).