ISRO-NASA’s NISAR Mission Set to Launch on July 30: A New Era in Earth Observation

National News: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the United States space agency NASA are preparing for a major joint venture. Their first collaborative satellite mission, NISAR, is scheduled to launch on July 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

According to ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan, the NISAR satellite will monitor the entire planet and is expected to benefit the global community in many ways.

What Makes the NISAR Mission Special?

• The satellite will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 743 kilometers using ISRO’s GSLV-F16 rocket.
• NISAR is the world’s first radar satellite capable of scanning the entire Earth every 12 days, regardless of weather conditions or time of day.

It contains two advanced radar systems:

• L-band radar developed by NASA
• S-band radar developed by ISRO
• These radars will allow the satellite to capture highly accurate images—down to the centimeter level.

Where Will NISAR Be Useful?

This satellite will help in:

• Real-time tracking of natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods.
• Providing important data for agriculture, climate change analysis, soil moisture levels, and forest monitoring.
• Observing tiny changes in land and ice surfaces, which will be crucial for scientific research.

A Strong Partnership Between ISRO and NASA

The NISAR mission reflects the deep technical collaboration between India and the United States. It is the result of over ten years of joint development between ISRO and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

ISRO has described this mission as historic and transformative, with the potential to improve disaster response, environmental monitoring, and scientific understanding of Earth systems.