A Decade In The Making: ISRO And NASA Finalise Preparations For NISAR Launch In June
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The mission is likely to lift off this June, deploying one of the largest and most advanced radar systems in space to provide an unprecedented view of the Earth
After a prolonged delay, ISRO has kicked off the launch campaign for its much-anticipated collaboration with US-based NASA. The mission — NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) — is likely to lift off this June, deploying one of the largest and most advanced radar systems in space to provide an unprecedented view of the Earth.
With work on the landmark satellite nearly complete, the two space agencies are now reviewing potential launch dates for the mission in June. The second stage of the GSLV has been transported from the ISRO Propulsion Complex to the launch complex at Sriharikota, from where the mission, designated GSLV-F16, will take off.
The Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, which led the development of NISAR's S-band radar, has also invited private start-ups to a workshop this week. The event aims to explore potential commercial applications in Earth observation based on NISAR's advanced capabilities and to encourage innovation and development of new technical opportunities.
UNPRECEDENTED VIEW OF EARTH
NISAR has been nearly a decade in the making, with scientists from both India and the United States meticulously developing the mission's two scientific payloads — even through the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. While NASA developed the L-band radar for longer-wavelength imaging, ISRO and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad built the complementary S-band radar.
The S-band radar was transported to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in March 2021, where it was integrated with the L-band system. Two years later, in March 2023, the fully integrated payload was shipped to the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru for final preparations. Both radar systems are capable of peering through cloud cover and operating day and night.
Initially scheduled for an early 2024 launch, the mission was delayed after one of its components had to be sent back to the US for corrections.
The dual-frequency radar will scan nearly all of Earth's land and ice-surfaces twice every 12 days to measure any changes, growth and retreat of its land, and sea-ice.
According to ISRO, the mission will provide comprehensive, high-resolution data — freely available — to track parameters such as crop cover, forest biomass and disturbance, mangrove spread, soil moisture, surface water extent, glacier dynamics, wet snow cover, and even ocean surface wind speeds. The satellite will also be capable of detecting movements in the Earth's crust, including earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity.
GAGANYAAN SECOND TEST VEHICLE MISSION SOON…
Apart from the upcoming NISAR launch, ISRO has a packed schedule of major missions this summer. Among them is the PSLV-C61, which will carry the EOS-09 satellite. Equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, the satellite will be capable of capturing high-resolution images of Earth's surface in all weather conditions, both day and night.
The TV-D02, the second test vehicle mission of the Gaganyaan programme is also planned for launch. This mission will simulate an abort scenario and test the crew escape system through sea-recovery operations for the crew module for India's first-ever human spaceflight. The government recently revised the total budget for Gaganyaan to Rs 20,193 crore.
Additionally, Chandrayaan-4 has been recently sanctioned with a total cost of Rs 2104 crore with the target to collect lunar samples from the southern high latitudes and return the samples to Earth for scientific study in October 2027. ISRO also has set its aim on building a Bhartiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and landing an astronaut on the Moon by 2040.
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