{"id":2340,"date":"2026-02-17T10:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:43:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:43:48","slug":"space-technology-is-nepals-next-frontier-for-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/?p=2340","title":{"rendered":"Space Technology is Nepal\u2019s Next Frontier for Diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my latest article for <em><strong>The Diplomat Nepal<\/strong><\/em>, I explore why space is no longer a luxury for developing nations ?\u00a0 In this article I explored about the\u00a0success of NepaliSat-1 and Munal. Embrace the $1.8 trillion global space market by 2035.<\/p>\n<p>I argued that the reality of the 21st century is\u00a0 space technology is the backbone of modern disaster resilience, climate monitoring and telecommunications.<\/p>\n<p>Having followed our journey from the initial launch in 2019 to the current manufacturing of the RSMS-sat constellation, I believe our greatest strength lies in our soft power diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2341\" src=\"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-1024x973.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"694\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-1024x973.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-300x285.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-10x10.jpg 10w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-768x730.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-1536x1460.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-730x694.jpg 730w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp-1070x1017.jpg 1070w, https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sp.jpg 1822w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Situated between two space giants- India and China, Nepal has a unique opportunity to learn, collaborate and eventually send our own pioneers into the Space.<\/p>\n<p>We must move from being passive observers of the cosmos to active participants in the trillion-dollar landscape that awaits us.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2340 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thr-fa-third'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/space_2.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"356\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/space_2-356x267.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thr-fa-third size-thr-fa-third\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2343\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2343'>\n\t\t\t\tArticle Published in the Diplomat Magazine\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/space_1.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"356\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/space_1-356x267.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thr-fa-third size-thr-fa-third\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2342\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2342'>\n\t\t\t\tArticle Published in the Diplomat Magazine\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><em><strong>Note:<\/strong> As someone who has transitioned from reporting on science to working in conservation, I see space technology as a crucial tool for environmental monitoring and climate resilience in the Himalayas.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Read the full article on The Diplomat Nepal <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/diplomatnepal.com\/feature\/nepals-space-diplomacy-in-the-trillion-dollar-economy\/\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Link:\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260212075650\/https:\/\/diplomatnepal.com\/feature\/nepals-space-diplomacy-in-the-trillion-dollar-economy\/\">https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260212075650\/https:\/\/diplomatnepal.com\/feature\/nepals-space-diplomacy-in-the-trillion-dollar-economy\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my latest article for The Diplomat Nepal, I explore why space is no longer a luxury for developing nations ?\u00a0 In this article I explored about the\u00a0success of NepaliSat-1 and Munal. Embrace the $1.8 trillion global space market by 2035. I argued that the reality of the 21st century is\u00a0 space technology is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,84],"tags":[155,154,158,156,157,111,153,152,150,151,120],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-84","tag-china","tag-india","tag-isro","tag-japan","tag-nasa","tag-nepal","tag-rockets","tag-satellite","tag-space","tag-spacediplomacy","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2347,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/2347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}