The 27-hour and 30-minute countdown for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), slated for launch tomorrow, will begin this afternoon at 1410 hours IST. NISAR is the first joint satellite mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NISAR will be launched by ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-F16 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota at 1740 hours IST, tomorrow.  The NISAR mission is the first time a GSLV rocket is being used to place a satellite in sun-synchronous polar orbit, signalling ISRO’s growing technical sophistication in supporting diverse space missions.

Akashvani correspondent reports that the NISAR satellite mission is the first dual-band radar satellite and GSLV’s first launch into a 743-km Sun-Synchronous Orbit with an inclination of 98.4 degrees.

It is a groundbreaking collaboration between ISRO and NASA, showcasing strong technical cooperation between the two space agencies’ technical teams for over a decade.  This joint Earth observation mission aims to track changes on land and ice, detect natural disasters, and provide critical data for climate studies and disaster response.