LAS VEGAS — The launch of a joint U.S.-India radar imaging satellite will not take place before February 2025 due to work on the spacecraft’s antenna and orbital constraints, NASA announced July 29.
in Blog PostNASA announced that it has completed work on the Large Deployable Antenna for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft, which was sent back to the U.S. from India earlier this year. NASA announced in March It was necessary to apply a “special coating” to the antenna. Analysis revealed that the mirror may become hotter than expected when stowed during launch.
At the time, NASA said it would announce a new launch date for NISAR at the end of April, but the agency has not provided any updates on the status of the spacecraft or a new launch date.
The update came after SpaceNews inquired about the status of the mission, following Indian media reports that it was scheduled to launch this spring but is no longer expected to launch this year. Response to Questions from the House of Representatives, July 24thSpeaking in the Rajya Sabha, the Indian parliament’s house, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Space, listed India’s upcoming space missions and launches for 2024. Notably, NISAR was omitted from the list.
In an update, NASA said work on the antenna, which will have a diameter of 12 meters when fully deployed, is nearly complete. That work also includes installing reflective tape and “other precautions” to mitigate heat buildup as the antenna is stowed. Once testing of those modifications is complete, the antenna will be shipped back to India to be reinstalled on the NISAR spacecraft.
NASA did not provide a timeline for the work, but said that after the antenna is reinstalled on the spacecraft, “the launch preparation date will be determined by ISRO in coordination with NASA.”
However, the statement noted that the launch could not take place between early October and early February 2025, because “the launch window would result in the satellite experiencing alternating periods of sunlight and shadow” and temperature fluctuations would affect the deployment of the antenna boom. This suggests that, given the remaining launch preparation work for NISAR, the spacecraft cannot launch before February.
NISAR is NASA and ISRO’s first Earth science spacecraft collaboration, with NASA alone spending more than $1 billion on the mission’s formulation and development, making it one of the largest partnerships between the two agencies. NASA is providing the L-band radar and engineering payloads, while ISRO is providing the S-band payloads, spacecraft bus, and GSLV launch vehicle.
NISAR’s radar has advanced radar imaging capabilities that support a wide range of Earth science needs, from glacial flow measurements to volcanic activity. The spacecraft can produce a map of the entire planet every 12 days.
