Reaching for the stars: Where Malaysia stands in the new space age
You probably don’t think about space when you wake up and check the weather, book a Grab, turn on Astro, or connect to the internet somewhere far from the nearest phone tower. Yet many of these everyday services depend, at least in part, on technology operating far above us. Satellites orbiting hundreds or even thousands of kilometres above Earth quietly support the communications, navigation and connectivity that have become part our daily life.
We may still picture space as a distant world of astronauts, rockets and superpowers, but it is already much closer to home than it seems. Today, space is not just something we explore. It is infrastructure we increasingly rely on, much like roads, electricity and telecommunications.
It has also become one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, opening up opportunities far beyond the traditional space powers. Countries that once watched from the sidelines, including Malaysia, are now looking for ways to build a place for themselves in this expanding economy.
The global space economy is booming: What changed and why it matters
For its first fifty years, space belonged to governments. Launching a single satellite could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and only a handful of nations could afford to play. That world has been turned upside down. Today, the commercial sector accounts for roughly 78% of all space activity, and the global space economy was worth about US$626 billion in 2025. Analysts expect it to cross US$1 trillion in the early-to-mid 2030s, with one World Economic Forum and McKinsey study projecting US$1.8 trillion by 2035, nearly twice the growth rate of the wider economy.
What changed? Mostly, the cost of getting to orbit collapsed. Sending one kilogram of cargo to space on NASA’s Space Shuttle cost around US$54,000 because rockets were built at huge expense, used once and thrown away. It was almost like buying a new plane for every flight. Then SpaceX learned to land its Falcon 9 rockets and fly them again. The price of reaching orbit has since fallen to roughly US$2,000–3,000 per kilogram, a drop of about 90% in two decades.
Cheap launches unlocked everything else. Satellites shrank from the size of a bus to the size of a shoebox, and operators began launching them by the hundreds. SpaceX’s Starlink network alone has put thousands of satellites in orbit to beam internet directly to the ground, reaching remote places where laying cable would be impossibly expensive. That last point matters enormously for a country like Malaysia.
The key thing to understand is that most of the money in space is made on the ground. When you use Waze, watch the weather forecast, or navigate a ship across the South China Sea, you are using satellite services. Rockets are simply what gets the infrastructure into space. Much of the real value comes from the services and data that follow.
Malaysia’s space journey so far: From MEASAT to its first astronaut
Malaysia’s space story is older than many realise, and it began not with an astronaut but with a television signal.
It started in 1996 with MEASAT-1, the country’s first communications satellite, championed by then-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. MEASAT made Astro possible and extended phone and data links across the country. It was even printed on the old RM2 banknote. The fleet has grown since, with the powerful MEASAT-3d launched in 2022 to boost rural broadband.
Buying satellites is one thing; building them is another. Malaysia’s first home-grown microsatellite, TiungSAT-1, followed in 2000, built with British help to teach local engineers the craft. A more ambitious Earth-observation satellite, RazakSAT, launched in 2009. Notably, it was the only operational satellite ever carried by SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon 1. But it failed after barely a year, resulting in a loss of more than RM140 million and offering a hard lesson in just how difficult satellite engineering can be.
The moment that truly captured the public came on 10 October 2007, when Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor became the first Malaysian in space, spending about ten days on the International Space Station. The Angkasawan programme drew more than 11,000 applicants and came bundled into Malaysia’s purchase of Russian fighter jets. Critics debate its scientific value, but as a source of national inspiration, it was unmatched. For a while, space was all Malaysians could talk about.
Behind the headlines, Malaysia continued building its institutions, eventually merging its scattered agencies in 2019 into a single Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA). That marked an important shift. Space was no longer being treated simply as a series of one-off projects, but as a national industry that Malaysia wanted to develop over the long term.
Malaysia’s space ambition: Where we stand and what comes next
Malaysia today is a small but serious player. It is not a space power, but it is no longer a bystander either.
Its ambitions are set out in the National Space Policy 2030 and given legal teeth by the Malaysian Space Board Act 2022, the country’s first proper rulebook for licensing and launches. The headline target is for the space sector to contribute around RM10 billion, or 1% of GDP, by 2030, create up to 5,000 jobs, and rank Malaysia among Southeast Asia’s top three space nations.
Much of the real value is already being delivered quietly through Earth observation. Satellite data managed by MYSA supports more than 90 government agencies, helping to map floods and landslides, track haze and deforestation, and monitor crops. It is estimated to have saved the country around RM2.7 billion in disaster and environmental management.
The private sector is stirring too. Alongside the veteran operator MEASAT, newer names have emerged. Angkasa-X is building satellite ground stations and its own internet constellation in Penang, while UZMA, an oil-and-gas group, launched its own remote-sensing satellite in 2025. Universities such as UiTM are also building small satellites that help train the next generation of engineers. Malaysia has embraced the new era pragmatically as well, granting Starlink an early licence in 2023. MEASAT, rather than simply competing against its rival, later became a Starlink reseller and folded the service into its own efforts to connect more than 500,000 rural Malaysians.
Where Malaysia could gain the most: Satellites, data, connectivity and launch services
Malaysia’s clearest opportunity is not necessarily building giant rockets. It is the practical, ground-based side of space. Turning satellite data into useful services such as flood prediction, crop monitoring and ship tracking plays to the country’s strengths in software and data, and this is also where much of the world’s space-related economic value is created. There is also real demand for satellite internet in Sabah and Sarawak, which together account for around 60% of Malaysia’s land area but have much lower population density.
The boldest ambition is a home-grown rocket launch site, which could make Malaysia the first country in Southeast Asia to operate one. Sites in Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah have been shortlisted, with a target of 2029. Malaysia’s position near the equator is a genuine advantage because rockets launched from lower latitudes can benefit from the Earth’s rotation, helping them reach orbit more efficiently.
But the obstacles are real. Funding is one of the biggest. Malaysia’s space budget remains relatively small, at around RM10 million in 2024, rising to RM50 million in 2025, and it must compete with priorities such as healthcare, education and housing. The country still depends on foreign partners for advanced technology, struggles to train and retain specialised talent, and is entering a crowded arena dominated by the US and China, with India and Malaysia’s own Southeast Asian neighbours also pushing ahead.
What comes next for Malaysia: Turning space ambition into long-term growth
It would be a mistake to picture Malaysia’s space future mainly in terms of sending astronauts to the Moon. The more realistic path is quieter and much closer to the ground. Malaysia could become a confident regional hub for the practical side of space by reliably building small satellites, growing companies that turn space data into everyday services, training more engineers, and perhaps operating an equatorial spaceport by the early 2030s.
Malaysia’s space story has always mixed soaring ambition with hard lessons: a satellite on a banknote, an astronaut who united a nation, a home-grown satellite that failed too soon, and a new generation reaching upward again. The country will not win the space race, and it does not have to. In an age where space has quietly become part of daily life, the real prize is not planting a flag on another world. It is making sure that all Malaysians, from the towers of Kuala Lumpur to the villages of the Bornean interior, share in what space now makes possible.
Read more of our articles below!
