ISRO to Launch NISAR Satellite on July 30

Nellore: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite aboard the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-F16) on July 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

A flagship collaboration between NASA and ISRO, this is a low Earth orbit observatory equipped with advanced dual-frequency radar technology.

The satellite is designed to map the entire globe every 12 days.

It would deliver consistent and high-resolution data that would reflect the changes in the Earth’s ecosystems, ice sheets, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater fluctuations and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

The satellite carries both L-Band and S-Band synthetic aperture radar systems. Utilizing the Sweep SAR technique, it can achieve a wide swath of objectives with high data resolution images.

These SAR payloads are mounted on the integrated radar instrument structure (IRIS). Together with the spacecraft bus, these form the complete observatory.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and ISRO are jointly developing the observatory, aiming to serve not only national priorities but also the global scientific community.

The data from NISAR would support studies involving surface deformation and land movement using repeat-pass interferometric SAR techniques.

As part of the collaboration, NASA is supplying the L-band SAR payload, while ISRO provides the S-Band SAR payload. Both radar systems would share a 12-metre diameter deployable reflector antenna.

NASA is also contributing several mission-critical systems, including the payload data subsystem, a high-rate science downlink system, GPS receivers and a solid state recorder.

The GSLV has been selected for this mission due to its proven capability to carry heavy payloads into the required orbit.

“NISAR represents a one-of-a-kind collaboration — a true fusion of Indian and American scientific excellence, built by two teams of expert engineers working in unison,” an ISRO engineer stated.