Chennai, Feb 5 (UNI) It was a traditional Indian style send
off ceremony by breaking coconuts for NISAR Satellite before
it was airlifted to India for launch by the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2024 from the spaceport of
Sriharikota.
Officials from NASA, ISRO, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
and the Indian Embassy held a send-off ceremony before the
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) science
instrument payload is transported to southern India for
integration with the spacecraft bus, for further testing
and launch in 2024.
NISAR, the SUV-size payload was loaded into a special
cargo container for a 9,000 mile (14,000 km) flight journey
to India’s U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, where it
will be merged with the spacecraft bus in preparation for
a 2024 launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and
ISRO.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads
the U.S. component of the project and is providing the mission’s
L-band SAR. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna,
the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for
science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload
data subsystem.
ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, the launch
vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission
operations.
NASA shared the pictures of the satellite in JPL Clean room in
its twitter handle.
Dignitaries from the US and Indian space agencies were
invited to see NISAR’s science payload in a JPL clean room.
It’s nearly time for the scientific heart of NISAR–an Earth
science satellite being jointly built by NASA and the ISRO
to ship out to its last stop before launching into orbit.
Before its departure, NISAR’s advanced radar instruments
were shown to the media in the clean room at NASA’s JPL
in Southern California in the presence of ISRO Chairman
S.Somanath, JPL Director Laurie Leshin, dignitaries from
NASA headquarters and India, and members of the mission
team.
“This marks an important milestone in our shared journey
to better understand planet Earth and our changing climate,”
Leshin said.
“NISAR will provide critical information on Earth’s crust,
ice sheets, and ecosystems. By delivering measurements
at unprecedented precision, NISAR’s promise is new
understanding and positive impact in communities. Our
collaboration with ISRO exemplifies what’s possible when
we tackle complex challenges together”, he said.
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