Russia in discussions with Malaysian province about potential spaceport
Proposed spaceports in Malaysia
Officials from Glavcosmos, the commercial division of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, have been holding meetings with officials from the Malaysian province of Sabah about building a spaceport there.
Glavkosmos said technical studies identify Sabah as the most suitable location in Southeast Asia for orbital launches, including low-earth and sun-synchronous orbits, due to its strategic geography and safe rocket stage drop zones. The proposed spaceport could create more than 2,000 high-income jobs and boost local supporting industries.
One year ago, in January 2025, the Sabah government announced it was holding similar discussions with the Ukraine. It seems either those talks fell through, or Russia decided to move in and block the Ukraine from making a deal.
A second Malaysian state, Pahang, is also planning a spaceport, working instead with China.
In all cases, it does appear for some reason Malaysia is not very interested in working with western nations.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Proposed spaceports in Malaysia
Officials from Glavcosmos, the commercial division of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, have been holding meetings with officials from the Malaysian province of Sabah about building a spaceport there.
Glavkosmos said technical studies identify Sabah as the most suitable location in Southeast Asia for orbital launches, including low-earth and sun-synchronous orbits, due to its strategic geography and safe rocket stage drop zones. The proposed spaceport could create more than 2,000 high-income jobs and boost local supporting industries.
One year ago, in January 2025, the Sabah government announced it was holding similar discussions with the Ukraine. It seems either those talks fell through, or Russia decided to move in and block the Ukraine from making a deal.
A second Malaysian state, Pahang, is also planning a spaceport, working instead with China.
In all cases, it does appear for some reason Malaysia is not very interested in working with western nations.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Yet they signed on to the Artemis Accords last October.
Malaysia, I suspect, wants to keep on good terms with all of the current Big Boys in the world. Quite a reasonable approach for a country that is of only moderate size in land, population and military stature even within its own Southeast Asian neighborhood.
I also suspect both the PRC and the Russians are much more eager to do spaceport deals than would be any Western nation. The PRC is always looking for influence, particularly with an oil-producing state in its general vicinity. Any Russians involved, for their part, would probably be delighted to work at building a spaceport for barely more than room and board in a tropical country given how many of their fellow countrymen are freezing in the dark these days due to Ukraine seeing off a bunch of Russian power plants and substations.
Malaysia is majority Muslim.
Enough said.
I guess other countries have interests that don’t coincide with ours. Fine, let them, as long as it is not a threat to us. As long as we get our antibiotics from Red China, have a hard time getting worried about launch sites in a developing nation that we don’t have an ally treaty.
Being near the equator is an advantage—but that means you are also near the storms of the ITCZ….not to mention tsunami.
Thinly disguised scheme to establish Putin retirement enclave.
pzatchok,
Being Muslim is, admittedly, not a point in Malaysia’s favor but there are Muslims and then there are Muslims. Malaysia does not seem to be a hotbed of jihadism.
jimmy mcnulty,
The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is being reshored at a pretty good clip. Which is a good thing as the PRC is looking a wee tad wobbly these days. Limiting or withholding supply for geopolitical reasons is a vulnerability we never should have countenanced. But if the PRC goes entirely to pieces soon – which it well may – we would be in far worse shape than we would be if all we had to put up with from the PRC was a bit of temporary arm-twisting anent trade. We are going to have to “arrange ourselves” – as the Italians say – to entirely do without the PRC because it is going to go away before much longer even if Xi manages to stay in the saddle this year.
Jeff Wright,
Everything is trade-offs.
Ray Van Dune,
Heh. But you might be onto something there even allowing for the giggle factor. Putin is already playing host to Bashar al Assad and could easily soon find himself with a bunch of Iranian mullahs as houseguests. Given the rate at which the Russian Federation, itself, is coming unstuck, Putin might easily find himself in need of a retirement dacha a long way from home. Perhaps Malaysia would be a suitable site for a sort of Old Scumbags Country Home and Hospital where out-of-work despots could gather at mealtimes to commiserate about how all have fallen to such a low estate. It would give Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un a last-chance forwarding address too.
Dick Eagleson
I guess I was a bit short on explanations.
I was not implying Malaysia is a hot bed of radicals they tend to not be in fact.
But I meant to imply Putin has a long history of dealing with Muslims, radicals mainly, and he might think he has a better chance of getting something out of them.
I don’t think Putin or even Russia in general is hoping to get a launch sight there.
But instead I think he wants access to a microchip producing nation. If he claims he is going to manufacture satellites there he has a valid reason to buy large amounts of quality microchips. Maybe not the best but better than he can make now.
Or could this be a better place to monitor other nations from?
If he just wanted a launch site he could have gone to a closer place like Africa. Or the middle East.
What does Malaysia give him the others do not?