ISRO To Launch Earth Observation Satellite NISAR Today

The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), an earth observation satellite, today. It will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota at 5:40 pm using the GSLV-F16 rocket. The countdown for the launch began yesterday at 2:10 pm.

The NISAR satellite is capable of mapping the Earth, day and night, round-the-clock under any weather condition. Once in every 12 days the satellite will scan the entire globe to provide very detailed images of



the Earth’s surface capturing minute changes which are smaller than a centimetre.

The much-anticipated launch of NISAR into the Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit is being carried out by GSLV instead of the usual PSLV as the satellite is heavier. NISAR is a unique Earth observation satellite and the mission marks the first hardware collaboration between the Indian and the US space agencies, with each providing a different radar system for the satellite.