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SIR-A

Shuttle Imaging Radar-A

Designed to fly aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-2, Shuttle Imaging Radar-A was the first in a series of instruments that imaged Earth using radar pulses, rather than optical light, as illumination.

Mission Statistics

Launch Date

Nov. 12, 1981

Type

Instrument

Target

Earth

Status

Past

About the mission

Designed to fly aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-2, Shuttle Imaging Radar-A was the first in a series of instruments that imaged Earth using radar pulses, rather than optical light, as illumination. The instrument helped detect the remnants of buried ancient riverbeds in the Sahara Desert because it could peer beneath features like sand, which are impenitrable to optical light observations.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built the instrument and its follow-ons, which were the largest space structures ever built at JPL.

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› Instrument website

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