The U.S. and India just launched NISAR, a powerful radar satellite that will be able to monitor changes in Earth's surface that are as small as a centimeter.

After integration, IRIS was shipped to India for integration into the NISAR satellite at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru. URSC finished NISAR before ISRO moved the satellite to the launch site, and the payload arrived at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on June 12.

Unlike optical sensors, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at the heart of the Nisar mission doesn’t rely on visible light. SAR uses microwaves, allo