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Ben Jiang

Beijing-based GalaxySpace’s deployed what it called China’s first turnkey satellite export to Southeast Asia this week, underscoring the country’s efforts to boost its influence in the space industry overseas amid competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
GalaxySpace said it launched the Lingzhi-09 Thailand CubeSat aboard a Long March-6C rocket – alongside six other satellites – from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province on Tuesday.
Developed for Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), the CubeSat satellite will collect remote-sensing data for land, agriculture and ecological applications, and also support practical training for Thai university students.
The mission marked the first time that a Chinese commercial space company had developed, launched and deployed a complete satellite in orbit for a Southeast Asian customer as a packaged solution, showing the sector’s ability to provide integrated services spanning satellite delivery, operations and training, the company said.
GalaxySpace, China’s first commercial space sector unicorn – a start-up valued at US$1 billion or more – provided GISTDA with an integrated package covering the spacecraft, ground system and personnel training. Thai personnel were trained in China, while GalaxySpace later sent teams to Thailand to help build and test the ground system, it said.
Chinese commercial space companies were moving from “exporting products” towards “exporting services and ecosystems”, turning satellite technology into an end-to-end service offering for overseas markets, said Yang Kuan, an associate professor at Beijing Institute of Technology and deputy director of its Institute of Aerospace Policy and Law, in an interview with the Beijing-based Financial News.
The overseas push comes as China’s commercial space sector ramps up satellite constellation deployment and overseas expansion in a challenge to SpaceX’s Starlink project.
Shanghai-based SpaceSail, which just completed a record funding round for China’s satellite sector, has secured approval to provide satellite communications services in Brazil while also exploring markets including Malaysia, Thailand and Kazakhstan.


Geely-backed Geespace has conducted satellite communications trials with telecoms operators in more than 20 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Latin America.
Still, the industry’s ability to export satellites hinges largely on a constraint closer to home: rockets and affordable launch capacity.
An industry expert who declined to be named said China’s satellite manufacturing sector was relatively mature, but the shortage of cheap launch capacity was holding it back.
Some Chinese launch services can cost around US$20,000 per kilogram, compared with roughly US$2,700 to US$3,000 per kilogram for SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9, according to a report by the Mercator Institute for China Studies that was published in February.
However, the two countries’ gap in reusable rocket development appears to be narrowing. Private rocket maker LandSpace successfully recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on land this month, marking China’s first successful ground-based recovery of an orbital-class booster.
The achievement followed last month’s successful sea-based recovery of the first stage of a state-developed Long March-10B using a net.
Founded in 2018, GalaxySpace had launched more than 40 spacecraft by early this year, Peter Huang, the company’s general manager for international business development, told Bloomberg in February.
Thailand was part of GalaxySpace’s broader push into overseas markets, he said, adding that the company was working with telecoms and space companies in Thailand and other countries to validate its technology and find “real world use cases”.
GalaxySpace has also begun preparations for an A-share listing this year, joining a dozen commercial space firms including LandSpace, Galactic Energy and Spacety seeking to tap China’s capital markets.


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GalaxySpace describes mission as first turnkey satellite export to a Southeast Asian customer by a Chinese commercial space company


GalaxySpace describes mission as first turnkey satellite export to a Southeast Asian customer by a Chinese commercial space company.


China’s commercial space sector expands global footprint with Thailand deal

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}GalaxySpace describes mission as first turnkey satellite export to a Southeast Asian customer by a Chinese commercial space company

GalaxySpace describes mission as first turnkey satellite export to a Southeast Asian customer by a Chinese commercial space company