The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency has already begun evaluating safety guidelines, business frameworks, and potential sites to host a domestic spaceport. The agency aims to achieve suborbital launch capabilities within the next five years, though constructing a fully functional facility will require at least seven years following formal approval. In addition to lengthy construction timelines, the nation must resolve regulatory and financing obstacles to maintain a competitive domestic sector.
Key points
Thailand aims to boost its economic competitiveness and technological independence by dev…: Thailand aims to boost its economic competitiveness and technological independence by developing a domestic spaceport and satellite industry.
The national space agency is actively assessing business models, site locations, and safe…: The national space agency is actively assessing business models, site locations, and safety standards necessary to support future launches.
Establishing a viable space sector will depend on resolving regulatory hurdles, securing…: Establishing a viable space sector will depend on resolving regulatory hurdles, securing financing, and attracting commercial demand.
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Thailand is expanding its space ambitions, with plans for a launch facility and efforts to build a domestic satellite industry. But attracting investment and developing commercial demand remain major challenges, experts say.
BANGKOK: When Nattaporn Chattam learned that her scientific experiment had gone missing aboard the International Space Station (ISS), she was stunned.
For years, the Thai physicist and her team at Kasetsart University in Bangkok had worked to send a 27kg scientific apparatus into orbit, some 400km above Earth.
It was a milestone for Thailand's emerging space programme. Developed with support from the country's space agency, the experiment was the first Thai national research payload to reach the station under a pioneering agreement with NASA.
The aim of Nattaporn's experiment was to study how liquid crystals, materials commonly used in television and mobile phone screens, behave in microgravity, where the pull of Earth’s gravity is much weaker than on its surface, with potential applications for future electronic and optical technologies, including on the Moon.
Astronauts began conducting the experiment aboard the station on behalf of the Thai scientists in…
American crew members aboard the International Space Station have exercised their civic duty despite being hundreds of miles above Earth. The digital ballots were routed directly to local county officials in Texas to ensure the astronauts' voices were counted. This process highlights established remote voting procedures that keep personnel connected to domestic elections while deployed in orbit.
Orbiting crew members successfully submitted their federal election ballots while serving aboard the International Space Station. This secured process ensures that active spaceflight personnel retain their constitutional right to participate in domestic elections while stationed hundreds of miles above Earth. The digital procedure enables voters on extended missions to register their choices alongside their home districts.
Conducted aboard the Replicator-2 satellite launched via a SpaceX rideshare, this breakthrough demonstrates direct orbital manufacturing outside the pressurized confines of space stations. Developed alongside Thales Alenia and the European Space Agency, the method bypasses rocket cargo constraints to support future orbital data centers. This success validates resin-based manufacturing directly exposed to the space environment.