New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully placed the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) in the intended orbit, onboard its heavyweight Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-F16 (GSLV-F16), setting off Earth observation like it has never been done before.
“The success of NISAR is the outcome of the joint effort by ISRO and NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory),” ISRO chairperson V Narayanan said at a press conference after the launch on Wednesday, adding that the data from NISAR will be “highly useful for the scientific community across the globe”.
NISAR took flight at 5.40 pm on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It is the most powerful Earth observation satellite, which will produce high-resolution images and data on various aspects of the globe, including providing key information for predicting disasters like landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes.
It is also the first satellite with dual SARs—L and S bands—operating in different frequencies. NASA’s JPL developed the L-band, while the S-band took shape in the ISRO labs.
Casey Swails, NASA’s deputy associate administrator, who was present at Sriharikota, said Wednesday’s launch was a “wonderful culmination” of the joint effort that teams from NASA and ISRO put in for over a decade.
“NISAR is an engineering marvel, and it shows the world what the two countries can do,” Swails said.
NASA scientists said ISRO’s GSLV-F16 will place the 2.8-tonne satellite into a sun-synchronous polar orbit. The mission is carrying a 12-metre-wide reflector, which will serve as a radar antenna.
Once the health of the satellite is checked, NISAR will begin the process of unfurling its 12-metre-wide reflector radar antenna. Around 10 days from now, after the pre-deployment checks are completed, a ‘yaw manoeuvre’ will be conducted to orient the antenna before it can begin operations.
NASA scientists confirmed that the satellite will enter the ‘science phase’ and start recording data after 90 days, around September-October.
Union Minister for Science and Technology, and Space, Jitendra Singh, who witnessed the launch in a watch-event in Delhi, congratulated the space agencies of the two countries for achieving this first-of-its-kind mission.
“The inputs from NISAR will benefit the entire world community, in the true spirit of ‘Vishwabandhu’,” Singh said.
He added that NISAR will be a “game-changer in the precise management of disasters like cyclones, floods, etc. Also, its capacity to penetrate through fogs, dense clouds, ice layers, etc, makes it a pathbreaking enabler for aviation and shipping sectors”.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)