In a major milestone for space cooperation, the NISAR satellite—jointly developed by NASA and ISRO—was successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aboard the GSLV-F16 rocket.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh congratulated scientists for the successful lift-off, calling NISAR a “global benchmark” in Indo-US collaboration. The mission marks the first time a GSLV rocket has placed a satellite in a Sun-synchronous Polar Orbit.
NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is the world’s first Earth observation satellite to carry dual-frequency radars (L-band by NASA and S-band by ISRO) on a single platform. It will provide high-resolution, all-weather imagery of Earth’s land and ice surfaces every 12 days.
With applications in climate change, disaster management, agriculture, and urban planning, the satellite’s data will be openly accessible to scientists and governments around the world. The mission, worth $1.5 billion, highlights India’s growing leadership in space science under PM Narendra Modi’s vision.
“We are not just launching satellites—we are launching new possibilities,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
