By
Surendra Singh
TNN | Updated: May 22, 2017, 10.41 AM IST
NEW DELHI: In 1992, the US under President George Bush had slapped sanctions on Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and prevented Russia from sharing cryogenic engine technology with the Indian space agency so as to check India from making missiles.
Two decades later, US space agency Nasa has joined hands with Isro to co-develop the world's most expensive earth imaging satellite that will cost the two countries over $1.5 billion. The irony is GSLV, which is likely to place this Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite into orbit in 2021, is the same rocket for whose cryogenic engine the US put sanctions on India.
Leaving the past behind, Isro and Nasa are busy building the 2,200kg NISAR satellite, which will provide a detailed view of the earth by using advanced radar imaging. It is being designed to observe and take measurements of some of the planet’s complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse and natural hazards.
Nasa became interested in Isro when the Indian space agency in April 2012 launched the country's first indigenous radar imaging satellite(Risat-1), some called it a spy satellite, which enabled imaging of the earth's surface during day and night under all weather conditions.
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