ISRO and NASA’s NISAR mission set to launch in June after years of preparation

After a prolonged wait, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has finally set the ball rolling for the final preparatory stages of one of its most highly anticipated global collaborations. The collaborative mission with the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, is scheduled to take off in June 2025. The ambitious Earth observation satellite will boast one of the largest and most advanced radar imaging systems ever to have been launched into space. When in operation, NISAR will offer a new window of the Earth's surface, with critical information about Earth's changing systems, natural hazards, and environmental change.

NASA and ISRO coordinates to finalise NISAR mission in June

As the satellite approaches completion, NASA and ISRO are coordinating to finalize the mission launch date. The launch vehicle that is the backbone of this mission, GSLV-F16, will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. One of the most significant milestones during this preparation phase is the movement of the second stage of GSLV rocket from the ISRO Propulsion Complex to the launch pad. This means that the vehicle and satellite integration is near, and the mission is now well on its way towards its final implementation phase.
The SAC based in Ahmedabad, which is one of the premier organisations of ISRO working on building the S-band radar for use by NISAR, has taken a serious effort at inducting the private sector. SAC recently organized a workshop in which it invited start-ups and new-entry firms to look for commercial spin-offs out of the mission. The workshop was focused on pushing the technological advances in Earth observation technologies by leveraging the high-technology radar capability of NISAR. With this initiative, ISRO is not just bringing its scientific knowledge but also catalyzing industry collaboration in order to release maximum applications in the real world from space-borne data across agriculture and forest, urbanization, and climate sensing.

NISAR’s radar technology integrates ISRO and NASA expertise

NISAR has been under development for almost a decade, one of India and the US's most visible cooperative space science missions. Despite the global setbacks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists in the two nations stayed on course. The mission revolves around a cutting-edge dual-frequency radar system. The L-band radar was designed by NASA with a longer wavelength, which works extremely well to penetrate vegetation, ice, and even dirt. It is therefore extremely helpful in monitoring forests, agricultural fields, and polar regions. ISRO built the S-band radar, however, which has higher resolution to monitor surface-level changes with more details.
The two radar systems were phased in. ISRO's S-band radar was transported to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California in March 2021, where it was combined with the L-band system. By March 2023, the combined radar payload was shipped to the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, where the testing was finally done and the radar was integrated with the satellite platform.

NISAR to offer global Earth monitoring every 12 days

NISAR will monitor nearly the entire land and ice surface of the Earth every twelve days. The satellite will capture high-resolution images that will transform our knowledge of a broad variety of environmental and geological processes. These include tracking glaciers and polar ice caps, which are key indicators of climate change. The satellite will also monitor displacements in the Earth's crust and thus be an important tool to observe and study earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.
Apart from this, NISAR will also have a significant role in mapping vegetation cover, forest biomass, agricultural crop stages, soil moisture, and water bodies. The mission is going to be highly beneficial for nations that are threatened by climate change and natural disasters since the data is going to be made available. This open access policy can facilitate better decision-making in disaster response, environmental management, urban planning, and resources management.
Originally scheduled to lift off in the early part of 2024, the mission was delayed due to the necessity for corrective actions on one of its modules stationed in the U.S. Overcoming those teething troubles, the satellite is now scheduled for a mid-2025 lift-off, and into an all-important phase of operational readiness.

ISRO prepares for multiple high-profile missions in the coming months

While NISAR is certainly a front-page mission, ISRO has a hectic schedule for the remainder of the year with other high-profile activities. Possibly most prominent of these is the launch of the PSLV-C61 carrying the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-09. The satellite, with a C-band synthetic aperture radar onboard, will provide high-resolution imagery of Earth's surface. Like NISAR, EOS-09 will be operational in all weather and at night, and hence will be a powerful instrument for civil as well as scientific applications.
The second test flight of the Gaganyaan programme is another significant mission on ISRO's list. The mission, known as TV-D02, will flight-test the crew escape system in a simulated abort mission. This mission is for protecting the lives of future astronauts and involves a sea-based recovery mission for the crew module. The Gaganyaan project, which will take Indian astronauts to outer space, has recently cleared with a new budget of ₹20,193 crore, reiterating the seriousness of the government to position India as a serious human spaceflight player.

India’s lunar ambitions soar with Chandrayaan-4 and future space station plans

India's ambitions reach far beyond Earth orbit. The recently approved

Chandrayaan-4

mission has been greenlit with a budget of ₹2,104 crore and will bring back samples from the Moon's southern high latitudes by October 2027. It will be a landmark for ISRO, with India's maiden lunar sample-return mission and an upgrade to its status in the global scientific fraternity.
Down the line, ISRO has two ambitious goals for the coming decades. The first is to build a full-fledged Indian space station, the Bhartiya Antariksh Station, by 2035. The second is even more ambitious: landing an Indian astronaut on the Moon safely by 2040. These long-term goals show India's resolve to become one of the leading space powers of the world, with autonomous scientific exploration and distant space capabilities.
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