NEW DELHI: After several delays, NASA has announced that the NISAR satellite, the world’s most advanced and expensive Earth observation satellite developed jointly by India and the US, is “likely to be launched in March 2025.” Originally scheduled for a 2024 launch, this ambitious mission represents over a decade of collaboration between NASA and ISRO.
In its statement, NASA said, “NASA and ISRO are targeting a likely launch date in March 2025.” The NISAR satellite, short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, will scan nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces every 12 days, measuring changes in ecosystems, land and sea ice, and the planet’s solid surface. The satellite will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast.
Weighing 2.8 tonnes and developed at a cost of over ₹5,800 crore, NISAR is the first satellite in the world to feature dual-frequency radar. It combines NASA’s L-band (1.25 GHz) and ISRO’s S-band (3.20 GHz) radars, offering unprecedented precision in imaging and data collection. The satellite’s critical components were transported from the US to India in October 2024, overcoming significant logistical challenges. However, the mission faced delays due to the technical complexities of its 12-meter radar antenna reflector.
NISAR is designed to address critical global challenges. It will provide invaluable data to help manage natural resources, mitigate hazards, and enhance understanding of climate change. The satellite will also study Earth’s crust, capturing changes in ice sheets, glaciers, forests, wetlands, and the planet’s surface, including earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity.
The satellite’s global coverage will enable rapid disaster response, offering pre- and post-event observations to aid in damage assessment and mitigation. Its high-resolution imaging capabilities, which function in darkness, adverse weather, and even dense vegetation, will allow for detailed surface mapping and detection of changes as small as one inch.
NASA emphasized that the satellite’s data would benefit humanity by enhancing scientific knowledge of Earth’s dynamic processes, including movements of the solid Earth and their broader implications. NISAR’s unique capabilities promise to revolutionize the way we observe and respond to changes on our planet.
