NASA-ISRO Radar Satellite Set for July 30 Launch: ISRO

Rapid Summary

• NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture radar (NISAR),the first joint satellite by Indian and U.S. space agencies, is scheduled for launch on July 30 at 5:40 p.m. from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota.
• The GSLV-F16 rocket will place NISAR in a Sun-synchronous orbit at 743 km altitude with a 98.4-degree inclination.
• Weighing 2,392 kg, NISAR is an Earth observation satellite using dual-frequency radar technology: NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band integrated with a modified I3K satellite bus from ISRO.
• It features SweepSAR technology to observe Earth with high spatial resolution over a swathe of 242 km.
• The satellite provides global scanning capabilities every 12 days under all weather conditions, detecting small changes in Earth’s surface such as ground deformation or ice movement.
• Applications include sea ice classification,disaster response,vegetation dynamics analysis,shoreline monitoring,and mapping of water resources among others.
• Growth involved more than a decade of technical cooperation between NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and ISRO teams; contributions came from multiple ISRO centers including Space Applications Centre (Ahmedabad) and U.R. Rao Satellite Centre.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The launch of NISAR signifies an important milestone in international cooperation between India and the United States through their space agencies-NASA and ISRO. This collaboration leverages unique technological expertise from both nations to address global challenges like climate change monitoring, disaster management, and resource allocation.

With its unprecedented dual-frequency radar capabilities integrated into one platform using advanced technologies such as SweepSAR for high-resolution imaging across vast areas globally every two weeks-NISAR sets new benchmarks for Earth observation satellites. Its versatile applications spanning land use patterns to environmental shifts position this effort as pivotal not only scientifically but also economically for industries reliant on development data.

Moreover, the successful integration of components by multiple Indian entities highlights domestic innovation capability alongside international alignment in shaping next-generation technology projects that echo coordinated advances engineering-wise societal-needed scientific solutions broadly expanding reach exemplary importantly partnerships results impactful universally adaptive scalability projection-data directly relevant situational .

Read more: The Hindu Article