GalaxySpace delivers Thai CubeSat from China to orbit

At 11:21 a.m. Beijing time on August 25, a Long March 6C rocket rose from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with seven satellites aboard. Among them was Lingzhi-09, a CubeSat built by GalaxySpace for Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, or GISTDA. The mission is the company’s first commercial whole-satellite delivery to Southeast Asia, covering construction, launch and in-orbit delivery.

The satellite’s job is practical: collect Earth-observation data on Thailand’s land, agriculture and ecology. GalaxySpace is not selling only hardware. Its package includes a ground system, training for Thai technicians in China and teams scheduled to support commissioning on site. Thai universities are also expected to use the satellite for education in design, tracking and remote sensing.

The launch builds on work that began in Bangkok. In 2024, GalaxySpace and Mahanakorn University of Technology built a ground test station and ran vehicle-satellite and remote-medicine pilots. GalaxySpace described that effort as China’s first overseas deployment of low-orbit broadband satellite internet; two years later, the company says it has moved from verification to commercial delivery.

So what changes in practice? GISTDA gets a satellite mission tied to a ground system and local skills, rather than a spacecraft delivered in isolation. That broader context matters in Southeast Asia, where the region’s island-heavy geography can make ground networks expensive and satellite services have clear advantages.

The step is commercial, but its limits are clear. The satellite has been placed in orbit, but the source does not report performance results or a timetable for operational service. GISTDA’s Phee Choosri framed the partnership as technology transfer, talent building and knowledge exchange. For GalaxySpace, Thailand is the first overseas destination and a test of whether an integrated export model can be repeated in other markets.