NISAR's Record-Breaking Antenna Reflector Deployed in Space
NISAR is one big step closer to beginning its mission to study Earth’s changing surfaces. Following its launch on July 30, 2025, commands were sent to the satellite on Aug. 15, 2025, to unfurl its 39-foot-wide (12-meter-wide) antenna reflector. It’s the largest reflector NASA has ever deployed in space.
The reflector is one of NASA’s key hardware contributions to the NISAR mission. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR is collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The mission will use an advanced, dual-band radar system — with complementary radar instruments provided by each agency — to collect high-resolution, near-global coverage of Earth, providing insights into natural hazards, agriculture, glacier and ice sheet movement, and more. The reflector plays a crucial role for both radars, which is why the successful deployment of the hardware is such a significant milestone.
For more information on the NISAR mission, visit: nasa.gov/nisar.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Transcript
All subsystems, this is phase lead.
We see bloom on our telemetry.
All subsystems, this is phase lead.
Powered deployment continues to look nominal as we continue to proceed through the motion.
Temperature, tension, and revolutions continue to look nominal.
All subsystems, this is phase lead.
We have a successful reflector deployment!
We're very excited to say that we have now deployed our reflector, which puts us in the final configuration to being an Earth science observatory.
Next we're going to start turning on the radar; we'll start tuning the radar; and then we'll start taking images of Earth, and we'll continue tuning it until about day 90 after launch at which case we'll start our science mission.
And NISAR is well on its way to being this transformative mission and producing the science that we've all been waiting for.