HELSINKI — China is exploring establishing its first overseas launch site with a proposed equatorial spaceport in Malaysia, carrying strategic, economic, and geopolitical implications.
The China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) signed a letter of intent with Pahang State Development Corporation (PKNP) and Lestari Angkasa Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian private company actively involved in the development of the country’s space sector, April 15.
The Malaysia state government has agreed to a one-year feasibility study for a proposed spaceport, in Pahang, according to New Strait Times. The project, named Pahang International Spaceport, could create more than 2,000 job opportunities, as well as spillover economic effects, including in the fields of tourism and research, according to the reports.
The spaceport would be near-equatorial, at around 3-4 degrees north latitude. Launching near the equator allows rockets to benefit from the Earth’s rotational speed, enabling heavier payloads and more efficient fuel usage.
If approved, the project could be completed in the next three-to-five years, according to a report from Bernama, a Malaysian state-owned news agency, citing state Investment, Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Datuk Mohamad Nizar Najib.
A PKNP and Lestari Angkasa Sdn Bhd delegation is expected to visit Wenchang Space City in Hainan, south China, in May to further discuss the Pahang International Spaceport project. CGWIC, under state-owned space contractor CASC, is the sole commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide satellites, commercial launch services and to carry out international space cooperation.
While the Pahang International Spaceport is in an early, tentative phase, the project could be notable for a number of reasons, according to Bleddyn Bowen, an associate professor in Astropolitics at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
New launch facilities could help ease a bottleneck in China’s access to space, in terms of launch cadence. A Pahang spaceport could provide options for commercial and civil missions, while less likely to be used for more sensitive missions, given its location outside China. It could also assist in lunar plans in some respects. China’s lowest latitude spaceport is Wenchang, located at 19 degrees North.
If the project were to go ahead, it would be a statement of confidence that the Chinese have in Malaysia as a regional partner, Bowen says. It would also show “confidence that the Chinese government thinks it can sustain a major spaceport outside of its own borders,” as well as in its ability to sustain a related logistics chain.
The project could symbolize China’s growing global ambitions in space, extending their launch infrastructure beyond mainland China for the first time.
Geographical issues, while not insurmountable, would include challenges related to airline flight paths, shipping lanes, and overflight of neighboring countries, notably Indonesia.
There would also be regional implications of a Malaysian spaceport, which would be the first in Southeast Asia. “There’s that traditional rivalry between Malaysia and Indonesia, and Indonesia has been making its own space policy moves lately,” Bowen notes.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s April 15-17 state visit to Malaysia, the two sides issued a joint statement recognizing the great potential for strengthening cooperation in the space sector. The statement laid out that the two sides recognize that there is great potential for strengthening the partnership on space cooperation and the peaceful uses of outer space, while aiming to jointly enhance space capabilities, cultivate the space economy, promote technological progress and safeguard national security.
China has notably expanded its launch cadence in recent years, moving from 19 launch attempts in 2015, to 68 launches in 2024. The latter, a national record, was still far short of a planned near 100 launches that year. The country is expanding its launch facilities, with new commercial space pads being built at Wenchang, as well as new facilities to enable crewed lunar missions. Further commercial spaceports are being proposed.
In early 2023, the Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group (HKATG) drew attention when it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Djibouti to jointly develop and operate a spaceport. The MoU, however, expired without further action.
