GalaxySpace delivers a whole satellite to Thailand, the first such export to Southeast Asia by a Chinese private satellite maker
GalaxySpace's Lingzhi-09 cubesat for Thailand reached orbit on a Long March 6C on 25 August and was delivered to GISTDA — the first whole-satellite export to Southeast Asia by a Chinese private company.
At 11:21 on 25 August, a Long March 6C lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carrying seven satellites, all of which reached their planned orbits; it was the 665th flight of the Long March family. Among them, the Lingzhi-09 Thailand cubesat built by GalaxySpace was delivered to Thailand's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA). According to China News Service, this is the first time a Chinese private satellite company has built, launched and delivered in orbit a whole satellite for a Southeast Asian country. The satellite provides Thailand with remote-sensing data for land, agriculture and ecology and supports university teaching. GalaxySpace supplied a bundled package of satellite, ground system and capacity building, training Thai staff in China and sending a team to Thailand to build the ground system.
The same launch also carried Zhongke-14 and Zhongke-15, two SAR satellites built by GalaxySpace. According to Beike Finance, GalaxySpace has now launched 49 self-developed satellites. This is the first time a private whole-satellite supplier has entered the Southeast Asian market with a packaged offering, and it coincides with a joint 'smart-computing constellation laboratory' set up by Hainan and Thailand's GISTDA.
Our take: the barrier to whole-satellite exports lies in the full chain of ground systems, training and in-orbit delivery. This order is small, but it is the first validation of a private company moving from 'product export' to 'service export'; whether it turns into repeatable Southeast Asian orders is the thing to watch.