Strengthening Indo-US space collaboration, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully launched the Earth observation satellite NISAR aboard its GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The 51.7-metre tall, three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F16) thundered into the skies at the close of a 27.5-hour countdown, carrying the 2,393-kg synthetic aperture radar satellite jointly developed by ISRO and NASA.
Lifting off from the second launch pad, the rocket’s 19-minute flight is designed to position NISAR into a Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit at an altitude of 745 km. If successful, the satellite will begin its mission to map changes on Earth's surface with unparalleled accuracy.
Also read: ISRO-NASA satellite NISAR to launch today from Sriharikota
NISAR, short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, is the first major hardware collaboration between the two agencies. It is equipped with an L-band radar supplied by NASA and an S-band radar developed by ISRO, making it the world’s first dual-band SAR satellite.
The sophisticated radar system will enable precise monitoring of land and ice surface deformation, forest biomass, natural disasters, and oceanic dynamics. Designed to capture fully polarimetric and interferometric data, NISAR will serve both climate science and disaster response objectives.
“The mission will provide critical data for studying Earth's changing ecosystems, ice mass balance, and tectonic shifts,” said ISRO officials.
The collaboration reflects the growing strategic partnership between India and the United States in high-end space science and technology. NISAR’s datasets are expected to benefit global scientific communities by enabling long-term climate modelling and real-time geohazard detection.
The mission, originally conceptualised in 2014, has now taken shape as one of the most advanced Earth observation platforms ever developed.
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