The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.
NISAR, which is the first joint satellite between the two nations, is a historic collaboration between the Indian and American space agencies. Weighing about 2,393kg, and with a lifespan of about 5 years, NISAR was launched using ISRO's GSLV-F16 rocket, which was scheduled to place the satellite into a 743-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit, almost 20 minutes after lift-off.
"Congratulations India!" wrote Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, on his X account. He said the successful launch of GSLV-F16 is a game changer in precise management of disasters like cyclones, floods etc. "Also, it’s capacity to penetrate through fogs, dense clouds, ice layers etc make it a pathbreaking enabler for aviation and shipping sectors," the minister wrote, adding that the inputs from NISAR would benefit the entire world community, which he said was in the true spirit of “Vishwabandhu”.
"Proud to be associated with the Department of Space at a time when Team @isro is registering one global milestone after the other, under the supportive patronage of PM @narendramodi," he added.
Earlier in the day, while addressing students at THE WEEK’s first Education Conclave in Delhi, the minister said, "India is now open to collaborations in space programmes. Take NISAR, for example—an Indo-US joint mission where both ISRO and NASA have contributed." He pointed out that the world is now approaching India for partnerships, rather than the other way around. Even in case of astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, they (US agency) wanted Indian collaboration, he said.
NASA has explained that NISAR—the first of its kind in space—was designed to provide a "detailed view of the Earth", so as to observe and measure certain complex processes on the planet, by monitoring changes on the planet's surface: even those as small as a centimetre.
The satellite, equipped with dual-frequency radar, will produce high-resolution, all-weather, day-and-night data every 12 days.
Ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater issues are some processes set to be studied in further detail.
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The launch of the NISAR satellite forms one part of a four-phase mission. The remaining phases are the deployment phase, commissioning phase and science phase, ISRO had announced in an X post.
"With this successful launch, we are at the threshold of fulfilling the immense scientific potential NASA and ISRO envisioned for the NISAR mission more than 10 years ago,” declared ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan, in a NASA press release. “The powerful capability of this radar mission will help us study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before.”