NISAR Arrives at Indian Launch Site

The lid of a specialized container is lifted to reveal NISAR, the Earth-observing radar satellite jointly developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), shortly after the spacecraft's arrival at ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India's southeastern coast on May 16, 2025.

The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite had departed about two days earlier from the ISRO Satellite Integration and Test Establishment (ISITE) in Bengaluru. At ISITE, engineers from the Indian space agency and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission for NASA, had worked together since March 2023 to bring together components and assemble the satellite. They also tested the spacecraft to ensure it can withstand the rigors of launch and function properly in orbit.

In the early morning of May 14, crews placed the satellite in the specialized container and transported it about 220 miles (360 kilometers) by truck to the space center. Prior to launch the satellite will be encapsulated in its payload fairing and mounted atop an ISRO Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle Mark II rocket.

Figure A shows the truck and container prior to the unboxing of the satellite.

Figure A

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Figure B shows the satellite after it was removed from the container.

Figure B

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In orbit, NISAR will collect an unprecedented amount of information about change on our home planet. It will scan nearly all of Earth's land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days, providing insights into the growth and retreat of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, the deformation of the planet's crust due to natural hazards, as well as natural and human-caused changes to its terrestrial ecosystems, including forests and wetlands.

To learn more about NISAR, visit: https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/