Today marks a milestone in Earth science: the joint NASA‑ISRO NISAR (NASA‑ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite is scheduled to launch at 5:40 PM IST aboard India’s GSLV‑F16 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. With a hefty 2,392 kg mass and a mission cost of approximately $1.5 billion, NISAR is the most expensive and advanced Earth-observation satellite to date. 

NISAR carries a pioneering dual-frequency SAR system—an L‑band radar by NASA and an S‑band radar from ISRO—mounted on a 12‑meter deployable mesh antenna. It is designed to scan almost all land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days, delivering high-resolution imaging regardless of weather or lighting conditions.

Its capabilities include detecting millimetre-level ground deformation, glacier shifts, landslides, flood waters, vegetation changes, and urban subsidence. This real-time data supports disaster management, climate research, agriculture, groundwater monitoring, and infrastructure planning worldwide.

Following launch, NISAR will undergo a ~90‑day commissioning phase before entering its three‑year science mission, after which data will be freely available for global research and policy use. This landmark mission over a decade in the making represents a leap forward in global environmental monitoring and Indo‑US cooperation in space exploration.