US, India launch powerful Earth-monitoring satellite

A formidable new radar satellite jointly developed by the United States and India was launched which is designed to track subtle changes in Earth's land and ice surfaces and help predict both natural and human-caused hazards.

Dubbed NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), the pickup truck-sized spacecraft blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeastern coast, riding an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket.