ISRO, NASA Discuss Opportunities In Space
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the space agency in the US and its Indian counterpart Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have held talks on potential opportunities for future cooperation in space exploration.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Laurie Leshin visited the ISRO headquarters in India and met the chairman of the Indian space agency and Secretary of the Department of Space, S Somanath.
"Dr. Laurie Leshin expressed happiness over the joint efforts of JPL and ISRO officials working together as a single team at ISRO's U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in realising 'NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)," Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO said.
NISAR's willingness to launch and potential opportunities for future cooperation including professional exchange in technical areas and space exploration were also discussed during her visit on 15 November, ISRO said.
NISAR, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory, is being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. It is expected to be launched from Sriharikota spaceport within the first half of 2024.
ISRO stated that NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water.
Additionally, it will also help in accessing natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.
