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The first joint satellite of the Indian and US space agencies is now set for launch.
ISRO said on Monday that the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will be launched by ISRO’s GSLV-F16 on July 30 at 5:40 pm from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. The mission has been in the works for over a decade now.
The GSLV-F16 launch vehicle will inject the NISAR satellite into a 743 km Sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 98.4 degrees, said the Indian space agency. NISAR will scan the Earth every 12 days, providing high-resolution, all-weather, day-and-night data. It will observe earth with a swathe of 242 km and high spatial resolution, using SweepSAR technology for the first time, ISRO said.
NISAR, weighing 2,392 kg, is a unique Earth observation satellite and the first satellite to observe the Earth with a dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band) both using NASA’s 12m unfurlable mesh reflector antenna that is integrated to ISRO’s modified I3K satellite bus.
NISAR is capable of detecting small changes in the Earth’s surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics. The other applications include sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterization, changes in soil moisture, mapping & monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response.
Published on July 21, 2025
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