Southeast Asia seeks its place in space

It's a surprising sight, reflecting the growing excitement in Southeast Asia's space sector. Held among designer shops and street food stalls, the exhibition brought together enthusiastic visitors from emerging space countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and, of course, Thailand to showcase Southeast Asia's fledgling space industry.

While there is some uncertainty about exactly how the region's space sector might develop, there is also a lot of optimism. “Southeast Asia is ideally positioned to lead the way as a space hub,” says Candice Johnson, a partner at Seraphim Space, a British investment firm based in Singapore. “There are a lot of possibilities.”

For example, Thailand may build a spaceport to launch rockets in the next few years, the country's GeoInformatics and Space Technology Development Agency said a day before the exhibition. “We don't have a spaceport in Southeast Asia,” says Athipat Wattanuntachai, acting head of the agency's space economy development division. “We saw a gap.” Because Thailand is so close to the equator, these rockets will get extra boost from the Earth's rotation.

Here, a variety of companies are exploring how they could tap into the global space economy. VegaCosmos, a startup based in Hanoi, Vietnam, is looking at ways to use satellite data for urban planning. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand monitors rainfall from space to predict landslides. And Seoul, South Korea-based startup Spacemap is developing a new tool to better track satellites in orbit, which the U.S. Space Force has invested in.