Nepali space innovator Jagriti Luitel will represent the country on the “Emerging Space Nations” panel at the International Astronautical Congress 2026 in Antalya, Turkey. She is the first Nepali selected as a speaker for this global conference.

During the event, Luitel will present research from her work with the MIT spin-off Aurelia Institute. Her presentation focuses on space architecture for disaster resilience, using the 2015 Nepal earthquake as a case study.

The conference runs from October 5 to 9, with Luitel’s panel scheduled for October 7 alongside speakers John Leur Labrador, Jakub Masek, Linda Ngozwana, and Alex Shi.

“A decade ago, I was sleeping under the open sky after Nepal’s earthquake. This October, I’ll be speaking about how space can help build a more resilient future for countries like ours,” Luitel shared on Instagram.

A human spaceflight trainee, Luitel previously worked at the Canadian Space Agency and represented Nepal on a zero-gravity flight.