NISAR satellite enters operational phase
On the 100th day in orbit of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite, ISRO has declared the spacecraft operational. The space agency also released the first image of India captured by the mission.
On the 100th day of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite in space, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan has announced that the spacecraft has commenced regular science operations after completing its commissioning phase. The first image captured over India by the satellite has also been released, clearly depicting the Godavari River Delta in Andhra Pradesh, with mangroves, agricultural land, arecanut plantations and aquaculture fields. Analysis by scientists indicates that the S-band SAR data has applications in agriculture, forestry, geo-sciences, hydrology and cryosphere studies.
The deployed radar reflector antenna. (Image Credit: ISRO).
The NISAR satellite was launched on 30 July 2025, and is the first collaboration of its kind between the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. The SAC developed the S-band payload, while JPL developed the L-band payload, that both use the same radar reflector antenna. This 15 metre wide radar reflector antenna is mounted on a nine-metre long boom, both developed by NASA. These two elements were stowed away for the launch and deployed in space, after the spacecraft passed initial system checks following the launch. ISRO provided the satellite bus, the solar panels, and the rocket to deploy the satellite.
Spacecraft has been designed for five years
The spacecraft has been designed to gather science observations for a minimum of three years, with ISRO ensuring that the spacecraft can operate for five years at least. The boom, the radar antenna reflector and the launch vehicle were the only single-points of failure on the mission, with all other systems being redundant or designed to degrade gracefully. The satellite operations are being carried out from the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with support from JPL. The first image of the Indian landmass was acquired on 19 August. The observations are calibrated using corner reflectors deployed around Ahmedabad and a few other locations across India. The satellite has now started monitoring the health of the planet.