Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), the first joint satellite of ISRO and NASA will be launched on July 30. “NISAR, the first joint satellite of ISRO and NASA will be launched by ISRO’s GSLV-F16 on July 30, 2025, at 1740 hrs IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. GSLV-F16 (launch system) will inject the NISAR satellite into a 743 km Sun-synchronous orbit,” ISRO said. NISAR, weighing 2,392 kg, is a unique Earth observation satellite and the first satellite to observe the earth with a dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band).
NISAR’s large deployable antenna will be used in a unique operating mode known as SweepSAR to provide wide area coverage and fine spatial resolution at the same time. It will observe Earth with a swath of 242 km and high spatial resolution.
The satellite’s ability to see through clouds and light rain, day and night, will enable data users to continuously monitor earthquake- and landslide-prone areas and determine how quickly glaciers and ice sheets are changing. NASA said that NISAR will offer unprecedented coverage of Antarctica, information that will help with studying how the continent’s ice sheet changes over time.
“The satellite will scan the entire globe and provide all weather, day & night data at 12-day interval and enable a wide range of applications. NISAR can detect even small changes in the Earth’s surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics. Further applications include sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterisation, changes in soil moisture, mapping & monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response,” ISRO said.
The NISAR launch is the result of strong technical cooperation between ISRO and NASA technical teams for more than a decade. The idea for NISAR originated with the 2007 National Academy of Sciences decadal survey, which identified the need for greater insight into ecosystems, solid Earth, and cryosphere sciences.