Members of the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California deployed the satellite's radar antenna reflector on Aug. 15, 2025. The JPL team, seen here in the lab's mission control, worked with a group at the Indian Space Research Organisation Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru, India.
Weighing about 142 pounds (64 kilograms) and measuring roughly 2 feet (0.6 meters) in diameter in its stowed configuration, the reflector unfurled to its full size, 39 feet (12 meters), over the course of 37 minutes. The deployment consisted of two stages - an initial "bloom" powered by the release of tension stored in the reflector's flexible frame while it was stowed. Subsequent activation of motors and cables then pulled the antenna into its final, operational position, where it was locked in place.
Figure A shows JPL team members applauding at the confirmation of the successful deployment.
The drum-shaped reflector is an essential component that enables the mission to collect data tracking change to Earth's land and ice surfaces. Observations from NISAR will benefit humanity by helping researchers around the world better understand changes in our planet's surface, including its ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice. It also will capture changes in forest and wetland ecosystems and track movement and deformation of Earth's crust by phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity. The global and rapid coverage from NISAR will provide unprecedented support for disaster response, producing data to assist in mitigating and assessing damage, with observations before and after catastrophic events available in short time frames.
The mission is an equal collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation and marks the first time the two agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. NISAR launched from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeastern coast on July 30, 2025.
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