The satellite called NISAR — short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar — will operate from a near-polar-circling orbit 464 miles high. It will join dozens of Earth observation missions already in operation by the U.S. and India.

NASA announced Wednesday it, in a partnership with the Indian Space Research Organization, has launched a radar system to map Earth as never before.

The US space agency NASA has launched a satellite into space in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) designed to measure changes on the Earth's surface at levels of precision previously unknown.