New Delhi: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to provide grant assistance for the launch of Nepal’s Munal satellite on Saturday.
The agreement was formalized by Anurag Srivastava, Joint Secretary (North) of MEA, and Arunachalam A, Director of NSIL.
The signing ceremony was attended by several key figures, including Dr. Rabindra Prasad Dhakal, Secretary of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Dr. Surendra Thapa, Chargé d’Affaires of the Nepali Embassy, and Dr. Abhas Maskey, Founder of Antarikchya Pratishan Nepal (APN).
The MoU was finalized during the visit of India’s External Affairs Minister to Nepal, where he also observed the exchange of the Launch Service Agreement for the Munal Satellite between NSIL and NAST on January 4, 2024.
The Munal Satellite, developed indigenously in Nepal under NAST’s auspices, is designed with support from APN, a Nepali space startup.
The satellite will focus on creating a vegetation density database of Earth’s surface and is slated for launch aboard NSIL’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in the near future.
