ISRO launched on Wednesday a $1.5 billion, first-of-its-kind radar imaging satellite built in collaboration with NASA, deploying it to help enhance global monitoring of climate change and natural disasters.

Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar, or Nisar, lifted off onboard the Indian space agency’s GSLV Mk-II rocket from Sriharikota on Wednesday (July 30). Jointly developed by Isro and Nasa, it is the first major earth-observing satellite with two frequencies — L-band and S-band.

Eyeing to study the planet Earth as a whole from a Sun-synchronous Orbit, the NISAR satellite is a combination of human skills and exchange of software and hardware between the two space agencies for over a decade.