New Delhi: In a written response to a question posed at the Lok Sabha, the Indian Minister of State for Space Jitendra Singh revealed the exact expenditure by ISRO towards the NISAR mission, “The financial sanction for realisation of NISAR satellite was obtained on 27th May, 2015 and it took a decade for the successful launch on 30th July, 2025. The expenditure incurred by ISRO is Rs. 504.78 Crores for the development of satellite as on October 31, 2025 and Rs. 340 Crores (approx.) for the cost of its launch.” The response also reveals the cost of a GSLV flight. The total amount of around Rs 845 crore translates to about $94 million in today’s prices. The mission cost NASA $1.2 billion, but the contribution of ISRO and NASA is equal in terms of the hardware.

The contributions by NASA and ISRO towards the NISAR mission. (Image Credit: NASA).

Singh also revealed the exact timeline of the complex series of deployments following the successful launch of the satellite with the GSLV-F16 mission on 30 July, 2025. The nine metre long boom was deployed first, followed by the deployment of the 12 metre wide antenna, which commenced on 9 August 2025 and took a period of seven days. The antenna was fully unfurled on 15 August, on India’s Independence Day. The first payload operations of the S-band SAR, built by ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad occurred on 19 August, 2025. The NISAR satellite has now commenced science operations.

The NISAR mission is the first collaboration of its kind between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and the SAC. The satellite can image the entire globe once every 12 days, with microwave imaging capability to acquire polarimetric and interferometric data. NISAR is primarily designed to study the cryosphere, land deformations, ecosystems and ocean regions of common interest to the US and Indian science communities. NASA initially wanted to plan a three year long mission, but ISRO insisted on a minimum mission duration of five years. The science plan activities are in progress according to the mission plan, with development of applications for end users. NISAR is a unique satellite, and novel applications of the data are expected to emerge during the course of the mission.