The First Mauritian Satellite project MIRSAT11, enabled the country to acquire the basic knowledge and skills for building, deploying, and controlling a 1U Cube satellite in space. In less than a decade, the Republic of Mauritius was able to initiate a space presence. This laudable action is widely recognized by the international community of space experts and opened new avenues for R&D in Space and Satellite technologies for Mauritius. Indeed, the possibility for exploiting space data to advise policy and to enhance socio economic good is now within the reach of Mauritian Scientists.

The MRIC has initiated several measures to foster further development in this new sector. For instance, the MRIC is collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to track one of their satellites launched in November 2022, taking advantage of the sophisticated Ground Station set up which the MRIC put in place for the first Mauritian Satellite Furthermore, the MRIC has engaged with the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey in UK to investigate on how to make use of latest satellite data in concurrence with Artificial intelligence to track illegal fishing vessels in our EEZ.

Pursuing its quest to set a firm base for the Mauritius Space Agency, the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication, and Innovation, which holds the portfolio for Space Development for the Republic of Mauritius, will sign a Framework Agreement with the Middle East’s most advanced Space Centre – the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). This Framework Agreement promises to provide a significant boost to development of space and satellite technology related R&D in Mauritius.