Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar, or Nisar, lifted off onboard the Indian space agency’s GSLV Mk-II rocket from Sriharikota on Wednesday (July 30). Jointly developed by Isro and Nasa, it is the first major earth-observing satellite with two frequencies — L-band and S-band.

ISRO launched on Wednesday a $1.5 billion, first-of-its-kind radar imaging satellite built in collaboration with NASA, deploying it to help enhance global monitoring of climate change and natural disasters.

The GSLV-F16 rocket successfully placed the NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite into a Sun-Synchronous Polar Orbit. This marks the first GSLV mission to such an orbit. The satellite will capture detailed Earth images,