NASA and ISRO have been in discussions about potential opportunities for cooperation in space exploration. The Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Laurie Leshin, recently visited the ISRO headquarters and met with the Chairman of the Indian space agency, S Somanath. During the meeting, Dr. Leshin expressed her satisfaction with the joint efforts of JPL and ISRO officials working together at ISRO’s U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) to realize ‘NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR).’
The readiness for launch of NISAR, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed NASA and ISRO, was discussed, along with potential opportunities for future cooperation and professional exchange in technical areas and space exploration. ISRO sources stated that NISAR is expected to be launched from Sriharikota spaceport in the first quarter of 2024.
NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide consistent data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides, according to ISRO. This collaboration between NASA and ISRO represents a significant step forward in the field of space exploration and the study of Earth’s systems.