By R Anil Kumar
Bengaluru, October 21. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA’s) C-130 Hercules has departed from NASA’S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on October 15,2024 for a cargo transport mission to India.
The C-130 is supporting the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.
NASA’S globetrotting C-130 Hercules team is carrying out a cargo transport mission to Bengaluru, India, in support of the NISAR mission.
The C-130 departed from NASA’S Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA, to embark on the multi-leg, multi-day Journey.
The Flight path will take the aircraft coast to coast within the United States, across the Pacific Ocean with planned island stops, and finally to its destination , Bengaluru, in India.
The goal is, to safely deliver NISAR’s Radar Antennae Reflector, one of NASA’S contributions to the mission, for integration on the Spacecraft.
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a joint mission between NASA and ISRO (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA-Indian Space Research Organisation, India).
The Cargo transport mission will encompass approximately 24,500 nautical miles and travelled for nearly 80 hours of flight time for the C-130 and Crew.
The flight plan included strategic stops and rest days to service the aircraft and reduce the crew fatigue from long-haul segments of the flight and multiple time zone changes.
The first stop for the C-130 was March Air Reserve Base located in Riverside County in California, to retrieve the the Radar antennae reflector from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Southern California.
Additional stops during the transport mission included Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Clark Air Base, Philippines and finally touched down at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bengaluru, India.
This is the C-130 and Crew’s third Cargo transport to India in support of the NISAR mission, with prior flights in July 2023 and March 2024.
Quick Facts about NISAR mission:
NASA-ISRO SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (NISAR) mission is Low Earth Observatory (LEO), being developed to map, the globe every 12- days and gather data that will provide insights into Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, sea level rise and so on.
The NISAR mission Spatially gathers consisent data that provides insights into Earth’s ecosystem, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, among others.
The Satellite carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) which operates in both L-band and S-band frequencies, to observe large swaths with high resolution data, making it the first Radar Imaging Satellite to use the dual frequencies.
The Satellite launch is rescheduled to February 2025, from its earlier plan of launch in 2024, due to setting right the minor glitch.
Once the Radar Antennae Reflector arrives in Bengaluru, it will be reintegrated with the radar system at a ISRO Facility.
Senior Officials said the NISAR launch likely to happen in February 2025 would be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-II (GSLV MK-II).
The Successful Journey will bring one step closer towards this mission, marking a new chapter in the International Space Collaboration and Earth Observation.
