Kathmandu, April 18 -- Nepal's first satellite, 'NepaliSat-1', has been launched into space, which will soon start rotating around the earth's orbit to collect information about the country's topography and earth's magnetic field. Meanwhile, officials said, the satellite itself will also be studied for developing more advanced satellites in the future.

NepaliSat-1 was launched under the 'Birds-3 satellite launch to International Space Station project' at 2:31am Wednesday by the Antares rocket which carried the Cygnus cargo aircraft from the Virginia Air and Space Center of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The NepaliSat-1, developed by two Nepalis, Abhas Maskey and Hariram Shrestha, at Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology...