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Sriharikota: India and the US on Wednesday, July 30, marked their maiden space collaboration with the successful flight of a GSLV rocket that placed an earth observation satellite, jointly developed by the two space agencies, in a precise orbit.

ISRO’s GSLV F-16 injected NISAR—NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, into the intended Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO), after a flight of about 19 minutes and around 745 km.

GSLV “successfully injected NISAR in designated orbit,” ISRO said.

Wednesday’s accomplishment follows the unsuccessful PSLV-C61/EOS-09 Mission on May 18, where a faulty PSLV of ISRO failed to deliver the earth observation satellite in the desired orbit.

After successfully launching similar satellites–Resourcesat and RISAT series, which were operationally focused on India, ISRO, through the NISAR mission, is embarking on a journey to study planet Earth.

At the end of the 27.30-hour countdown, the 51.7 metre tall launch vehicle carrying the 2,393 kg satellite majestically lifted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, situated about 135 km east of Chennai at a prefixed time of 5.40 pm.

Post the separation from the rocket, the scientists would embark on commissioning the satellite, which would take “several days” to position it and meet the mission objectives.

According to ISRO, the S-band Radar system, data handling and high-speed downlink system, the spacecraft and the launch system are developed by the national space agency. The L-band Radar system, high-speed downlink system, the Solid State Recorder, GPS receiver, and the 9m Boom hoisting the 12m reflector are delivered by the US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“Further, ISRO is responsible for the satellite commanding and operations. NASA will provide the orbit manoeuvre plan and the RADAR operations plan. NISAR mission will be aided with ground station support of both ISRO and NASA for downloading of the acquired images, which, after the necessary processing, will be disseminated to the user community,” it said.

The data acquired through S-band and L-band SAR from a single platform will help scientists to understand the changes happening to Earth.

According to ISRO, the NISAR mission’s primary objectives are to study land and ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic regions in areas of common interest to the US and Indian scientific communities.

The mission would help in measuring the woody biomass, tracking changes in the extent of active crops, and understanding the changes in wetland extent, among others.

NISAR mission to study world ecosystem

The mission life of NISAR is 5 years.

NASA said the data from the NISAR mission would provide critical insights to help governments and decision-makers plan for natural and human-caused hazards. NISAR can help with hazard-monitoring efforts and potentially give decision-makers more time to prepare for a possible disaster.

The RADAR satellite would provide a 3D view of the Earth’s land and ice, and through its ability to see through clouds and light rain, day and night, the satellite would enable data users to continuously monitor earthquake and landslide-prone areas and determine how quickly glaciers and ice sheets are changing.

The data collected from the satellite would also offer an ‘unprecedented coverage of Antarctica, ‘ information that would help with studying how the continent’s ice sheet changes over time.

Significantly, NISAR is the most advanced radar system ever launched by NASA or ISRO, and it would generate more data daily than any previous Earth satellites launched by them.

The NISAR mission would help the two space agencies to monitor ecosystems around the world, and the L radar penetrates deep into forest canopies, providing insights into forest structure, while the S-band radar monitors crops.

The NISAR data would help researchers assess how forests, wetlands, and agricultural areas change over time.