The Asian Space Industry Nobody Is Talking About — Including in Asia

I'm based in Malaysia, and I follow space content for a living.

Last week, while scrolling, I noticed something. About every fifth short video in my feed was about SpaceX. YouTube served me a 25-minute deep dive on Falcon 9 reusability. Blue Origin updates. Rocket Lab successes.

Then I tried to remember the last piece of Asian space content I saw in my feed.

Nothing. Not Malaysian. Not Indonesian. Not Vietnamese. Not even Indian or Chinese.

I'm Asian. I'm based in the region. I work in tech. I actively seek out space content. And my feed was telling me — by omission — that nothing was happening here.

So I went looking.

What I found wasn't that nothing's happening. It's that an enormous amount is happening — and nobody's telling us.

The Numbers

Start with the launches.

In 2025, the world conducted 321 successful orbital launches. The single biggest contributor: SpaceX, with 165. That's more than every other launch provider on Earth, combined. Roughly one launch every two days.

So naturally, the probability of SpaceX appearing in my feed is high — because they launch that often.

But here's where the story gets weird.

China launched 92 times in 2025 — up 35% from the year before. That's almost twice a week. Long March rockets carried most of it, plus commercial entrants like Galactic Energy, LandSpace, and iSpace. If China's launch frequency were happening anywhere else — say, France or London — it would dominate global tech media for months. It doesn't, because Chinese space news doesn't penetrate Western media well, and Southeast Asian media doesn't translate or amplify it.

India launched 4 rockets in 2025. Frequency is low. But look at what's happening underneath the launch numbers:

• Over 300 active space startups in the country
• Skyroot Aerospace crossed a $1.1 billion valuation in May 2026 — India's first space-tech unicorn, announced about a week ago
• Pixxel launched 6 hyperspectral satellites in 2025 via SpaceX rideshare (their Firefly constellation)
• Agnikul Cosmos raised $17M at a $500M valuation and operates its own private launchpad at Sriharikota

India isn't quiet. It's loud — just not loud in our feeds.

Japan ran 3 launches in 2025. Lower frequency, but high stakes — moon landings (SLIM), H3 rocket maturation, ispace lunar attempts. Japan goes for quality over quantity.

ASEAN — and this is the part that hit me — conducted zero indigenous orbital launches in 2025. Every Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Filipino, or Thai satellite that went into orbit last year got there on someone else's rocket.

• Malaysia: first launch pad targeted for 2029 in Lahad Datu, Sabah
• Indonesia: building ASEAN's first commercial spaceport on Biak Island, partnered with Japan, China, and SpaceX
• Singapore: attracting space IPOs to SGX; Astroscale's local team is building satellite servicing robots
• Vietnam: has launched VNREDSat-1 and -2 via JAXA / ESA partnerships
• Philippines: passed the region's first comprehensive Space Act in 2019

And the Earth Observation segment of ASEAN's space economy alone is forecast to contribute over $100 billion to regional GDP by 2030.

A hundred billion dollars. By 2030. From one segment of a regional industry that, until I went looking, I didn't know existed at any scale.

How did I — and likely you — not know?

The Gap

Five reasons.

One: Western media drives global tech attention. The tech press is concentrated in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and London. They cover what's near them — SpaceX in California, Blue Origin in Texas, Rocket Lab in Long Beach. Pacific Rim launches are footnotes.

Two: Chinese space news doesn't translate. China's launch announcements come through state media in Mandarin. Western analysts cover it in trade press. But it rarely reaches mass-market Asian readers — including Asian readers like me.

Three: Indian space news barely crosses borders. India has serious momentum. But Indian space coverage (The Hindu, IBEF, Bloomberg India) is read by Indians. Southeast Asians don't pick it up at the consumer layer.

Four: ASEAN regional tech media has no flagship beat. There's no Stratechery for Southeast Asia. No The Information for the Pacific Rim. The pipes that should carry this story don't exist.

Five: Government and industry comms are weak. ASEAN space agencies issue press releases in their national languages. Companies are small, with no PR teams. The signal is there. The amplification isn't.

The result: a $100B regional industry is being built in the dark — even from the people living in the region.

The Stakes

A region that builds a major industry without telling its own population about it has three downstream problems.

Talent doesn't follow. I remember watching the Artemis re-entry and tearing up — it's incredible how far humans have come on this space journey. And in that moment I thought: what if me, or any young Malaysian, Indonesian, or Vietnamese, were part of building this?

But they aren't. Young Asians don't choose space careers because they don't know the industry exists in their region. They follow what their feeds show them — American space. So they aim for SpaceX, not ANGKASA. Or they leave the field entirely.

Capital doesn't follow. Southeast Asian VC and family-office capital is pouring into AI, fintech, and crypto. Space gets a fraction. Not because the opportunity isn't there — because investors haven't been told the story.

Political will gets undermined. Government space programs need public support to sustain funding. If nobody knows the program exists, nobody defends it when budget cuts come.

The cost of invisibility isn't just embarrassment. It's slower growth.

What I'm Building

I'm starting a newsletter called Liftoff Asia to fix the part of this I can fix.

I'll be writing weekly about Asian commercial space — what's launching, what's being built, what's being invested in, what's broken, and what nobody else is saying. From Malaysia. In English. For the rest of us.

If you're working in Asian space — operating a company, investing in one, regulating, reporting on it, or just curious — I want to know what I'm missing. Email me. Tell me your bad stories. Send me the good ones.

The first issue lands next week.

If you're going to be at Satellite Asia in Singapore at the end of this month — find me. I'll be there.

The Asian space industry exists. It's bigger than you think. It's growing fast.

And starting now, somebody is going to tell you about it.