ISRO-NASA builds NISAR satellite ready to be sent to India for launch.

• The Earth-observation satellite jointly developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and ISRO will be sent to India in late February 2023 for a possible launch in September.
• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath recently visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California to oversee the final power test of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite before it is dispatched to India.
• The mission will help study Earth’s land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before.
• The SUV-sized payload will be carried in a special cargo container for the 14,000 km flight to the UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru.

About ‘NISAR’ satellite :

• ISRO and NASA had joined hands in 2014 to build a satellite weighing 2,800 kg.
• In March 2021, ISRO sent its S-band SAR payload developed in India to NASA for integration with the L-band payload manufactured by JPL.
• This is an important step towards better understanding the Earth and the changing climate.
• It will provide important information on the Earth’s crust, ice sheets and ecosystems.
• The NISAR spacecraft will be integrated into the satellite bus at the UR Rao Satellite Center for launch.