Kathmandu. Europe has strengthened its presence in the global race for space technology. On March 28, 2026, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula successfully injected the first two satellites of the European Space Agency’s Celeste mission into low Earth orbit.
Launched at an altitude of 510 km, these satellites are expected to add a new dimension to the global navigation system. This has a direct impact on mountainous countries like Nepal.
Celeste Mission and Technological Innovation
The main objective of the Celeste mission is to further strengthen and make the Galileo and EGNOS systems currently operating in Medium Earth orbit more robust and effective. ESA’s navigation director Francisco-Javier Benedicto Ruiz said the mission will make European navigation more resilient and safer.
The two CubeSats named IOD-1 and IOD-2 will test new navigation signals in space. There will be a total of 11 satellites in this demonstration phase. They aim to ensure 100 percent accuracy of navigation by transmitting signals from close to Earth. Because they are close to the Earth’s surface, the signals received from these satellites are very strong and easy to avoid jamming and other obstacles.
Impact on Nepal’s hilly geography and urban areas
This technology can be an important opportunity for a country like Nepal with a complex mountainous geography. The GPS system currently in use sometimes gets tangled between deep ravines, dense forests or large buildings in Kathmandu. Celeste’s “LEO” layer strengthens the signal, which is expected to improve location accuracy in centimeters rather than meters on hilly modes.
This will make Nepal’s GPS system used in aviation security, ambulance service and trekking sector more reliable. In addition, it will be of great help in finding the exact location of flood or landslide-affected areas and intensifying search and rescue operations during disaster management. This technology can solve the problem of location jumping between buildings, especially in urban areas. – With the help of the agency
