Thailand reaches for the stars as Southeast Asia's space ambitions grow

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.

An inflatable astronaut on display at Thailand Space Expo 2026 on October 28, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Jarupat Karunyaprasit)

Jack Board 04 Nov 2026 06:00AM (Updated: 04 Nov 2026 09:07AM) Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST 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.

CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less Astronauts began conducting the experiment aboard the station on behalf of the Thai scientists in December last year. But when the equipment was supposed to return to Earth months later, something went wrong. The critical research was missing.

"We thought it was lost in space. All we got back was some hard drives. I was very stressed," Nattaporn said.

It was later discovered that the experiment had been left behind aboard the ISS instead of being loaded onto the spacecraft returning to Earth. It was eventually recovered, landed in June and was handed back to the researchers last month, several months after its originally scheduled return.

For a country seeking a bigger role in the global space industry, the mission demonstrated what its scientists could achieve, while exposing some of the complications of working far beyond Earth.

"We know our science is good. As good as anyone. So why not us? We proved we can do it," Nattaporn said.

Nattaporn’s experiment is part of a wider push across Southeast Asia to secure a foothold in the growing global space economy, as countries seek new commercial opportunities and greater technological independence amid intensifying competition between major space powers.