NISAR’s Record-Breaking Antenna Reflector Deployed in Space
NISAR is one big step closer to beginning its mission to study Earth’s changing surfaces. Following its launch on July 30, 2025, commands were sent to the satellite on Aug. 15, 2025, to unfurl its 39-foot-wide (12-meter-wide) antenna reflector. It’s the largest reflector NASA has ever deployed in space. The reflector is one of NASA’s key hardware contributions to the NISAR mission. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR is collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The mission will use an advanced, dual-band radar system — with complementary radar instruments provided by each agency — to collect high-resolution, near-global coverage of Earth, providing insights into natural hazards, agriculture, glacier and ice sheet movement, and more. The reflector plays a crucial role for both radars, which is why the successful deployment of the hardware is such a significant milestone. For more information on the NISAR mission, visit: nasa.gov/nisar. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit to : NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory