Ministry of Finance Approves Funds for Nepal's First Satellite

BIRDS-1 CubeSat(s) seen here being released from ISS in July 2017.
Photo Credit: NASA

The Ministry of Finance of Government of Nepal has approved funding (hardware) for Nepal's first satellite which is scheduled to be launched in 2019. The form factor of the satellite will be in nano-scale in 1U CubeSat format. Nepal is currently involved in BIRDS-3 program in Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan along with Sri Lanka. BIRDS-2 satellite project has Bhutan as one of their participants while BIRDS-1 had Bangladesh. BIRDS-1, led by Nigerian Tejumola Taiwo, recently won the GEDC Airbus Diversity Award at the GEDC 2017 Conference at Niagara Falls, Canada. Congratulations to the BIRDS-1 team again.

BIRDS-1 constellation of satellites included Bangladesh's first satellite, BRAC Onnesha
Photo Credit: Kyutech

The next step would be for Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), the designated stakeholder from Nepal, to sign the Cooperative Research Agreement (CRA) with Kyutech.

You can read more about the BIRDS program [HERE] with monthly newsletters released to the public [HERE].

madeinepal.space thanks all the people, from all different levels, who had to come together to make this happen. There's still work to be done but it's very very close now.