Vantor (formerly Maxar) has published an image taken by a satellite belonging to the WorldView Legion constellation. It shows NISAR: one of the most expensive Earth observation satellites ever built, jointly operated by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
In recent years, the market for photographing objects in near-Earth orbit using specialized satellites has experienced rapid growth. This service is actively used to assess the condition of spacecraft and track space debris. It is also of considerable interest to military and intelligence agencies.
One of the leaders in this market is Vantor, a company that was known as Maxar Intelligence until October 2025 (it changed its name during rebranding). In the past, it has repeatedly published photos of various spacecraft taken by its WorldView Legion group, ranging from the ISS to Chinese spy satellites. Now NISAR has also been added to this list.
The NISAR satellite was launched on July 30, 2025, and placed into a 750-kilometer orbit. It became the first aircraft in history to be equipped with a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar operating in the L and S bands. Its creation and launch cost NASA and ISRO approximately $1.5 billion, making it one of the most expensive devices in history designed to photograph the Earth’s surface.
NISAR is designed to map the relief of land and ice masses on Earth with a resolution of 3 to 10 meters. For this purpose, it is equipped with a 12-meter radar reflector mounted on a 9-meter pole. It represents the largest structure of its kind ever deployed in space. According to experts, the NISAR radar will be able to track changes in our planet’s surface with centimeter-level accuracy.
The NISAR image published by Vantor was taken on August 21, 2025, from a distance of 100 km. The image resolution is 6 cm/pixel. Both the satellite and its record-breaking radar antenna are clearly visible in the image.
