• India and Japan notch milestones as regional competition intensifies
• Asia’s space story shaped by ‘sharply different national trajectories,’ says researcher Francesco Rosazza Boneitin

ISTANBUL

The first quarter of the 21st century has seen Asia emerge as one of the most dynamic centers of global space competition, as countries across the region expanded their ambitions beyond satellite launches toward human spaceflight, lunar exploration and independent orbital infrastructure.

Once dominated by the United States and Russia, space exploration has increasingly become central to Asia’s technological development, security planning and geopolitical positioning.

Over the past 25 years, Asia’s space story has been shaped less by a single regional model than by diverging trajectories, reflecting each country’s economic capacity, strategic priorities and technological maturity.

“It is difficult to identify common trajectories among these countries, as each of them has been driven by different needs over the years,” Francesco Rosazza Boneitin, a researcher at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), told Anadolu.

China pursues full independence in space

China’s space program has become inseparable from its broader ambition to challenge US technological leadership and reduce reliance on Western-controlled infrastructure.

Beijing “views space as part of a broader strategy to strengthen its technological capabilities, treating it both as a vehicle for international prestige and as a driver of economic development,” Boneitin said, adding that technological leadership is also used to attract new partners.

The country moved from investing only a few hundred million dollars annually at the start of the century to around $19 billion a year, overtaking Japan, long regarded as Asia’s main space hub, he added.

“Spending by other Asian countries, while substantial, remains significantly below China’s level – which has even surpassed annual European investments,” Boneitin said.

China’s commercial space sector has also expanded rapidly since 2014, attracting €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) in private investment in 2024 alone, driven by launch startups and satellite manufacturers.

Central to that strategy is the push for autonomous infrastructure. Citing China’s own development of positioning, navigation and timing infrastructure – known as BeiDou – Boneitin said Beijing “seeks to develop autonomous infrastructures in order to achieve full independence in the space domain.”

The BeiDou navigation system, completed globally in 2020, was designed to reduce reliance on the US Global Positioning System while offering an alternative positioning service to partners in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The same rationale drove China’s indigenously developed Tiangong space station, which became humanity’s second fully operational space station in 2022. In 2011, China was excluded from the International Space Station amid US national security concerns.

Beijing has also designated satellite internet as part of its new infrastructure ambitions, triggering major investments in satellite systems that would provide broadband internet and other services – reducing reliance on foreign systems like Starlink and Europe’s Eutelsat.

China’s ambitions even extend to the Moon. Alongside Russia, Beijing launched the International Lunar Research Station project in 2021, positioning it as an alternative to NASA’s Artemis program with particular appeal to Global South countries.

Between 2003 and 2025, China conducted 16 crewed space missions, most recently launching Shenzhou-21 in late October 2025.

Beijing has also begun inviting foreign astronauts to fly aboard Chinese missions, selecting Pakistan for its first such collaboration after Islamabad launched satellites using Chinese infrastructure.

India: ‘Aligning space achievements closely with national identity’

New Delhi has steadily expanded funding for its Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), alongside ambitious human spaceflight plans.

ISRO has gained global attention for delivering complex missions at relatively low cost, while “aligning space achievements closely with national identity,” Boneitin said.

“India is seeking to position itself as a regional alternative to China, although its space program remains closely intertwined with New Delhi’s nationalist policies,” he added.

Key milestones include the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008, which helped confirm the presence of water on the Moon; the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013, which made India the first country to reach Mars on its first attempt; and Chandrayaan-3, which achieved a historic soft landing near the Moon’s south pole in August 2023.

India has advanced its spaceflight capabilities through the SpaDeX program. In 2025, it became the fourth country to successfully complete in-space docking.

New Delhi also launched the United States’ next-generation BlueBird Block-2 communications satellite in December 2025, the heaviest commercial satellite ever placed into low Earth orbit.

The program has also faced setbacks. In 2019, India lost contact with Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander minutes before its planned lunar touchdown. While Chandrayaan-3 landed successfully in 2023, communication later ceased after the spacecraft entered shutdown mode to survive the freezing lunar night.

At the same time, India plans to launch its Bharatiya Antariksha space station, with the first module expected by 2028.

Japan reforms its mature space program

Japan entered the 21st century with one of Asia’s most advanced space sectors, but faced setbacks in the 1990s and early 2000s following failures of the H-II rocket program.

Tokyo responded by consolidating its space efforts under the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in 2003.

“Japan has long had a well-established space program and, consequently, a broad and mature domestic space ecosystem,” Boneitin said.

Japan later rebuilt launch reliability with the H-IIA rocket, supplied the International Space Station via the H-IIB and developed the Epsilon launcher for small satellites.

Scientific successes included the Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission and the recovery of the Akatsuki Venus probe after an initial failure.

Security considerations have increasingly shaped Japan’s space policy. Following North Korean missile tests, Tokyo amended its space law in 2008 to allow military reconnaissance satellites.

Japan has also committed to NASA’s Artemis program, aiming to land a Japanese astronaut on the Moon in the late 2020s.

However, challenges remain as Tokyo failed to launch its H3 rocket in December 2025 following repeated delays, hindering progress on its Quasi-Zenith Satellite System for navigation and precision positioning.

South Korea emerges as launch-capable power

South Korea’s space development accelerated sharply after 2000, supported by institutional expansion and rising budgets.

Its space spending increased from about $232 million in 2011 to more than $726 million in 2025.

The successful launch of the Nuri rocket in 2022 made South Korea one of the few countries with an indigenous orbital launch vehicle.

Seoul has combined civilian ambitions with security imperatives amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“The objective of increasing national autonomy in order to strengthen regional security is shared by both Tokyo and Seoul,” Boneitin said.

South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter, launched in 2022, mapped the Moon and tested space internet technology.

The country also successfully established connections with its 12 cube satellites in 2025, marking the first time that all satellites deployed by Nuri in a single launch achieved communication with the ground.

Future plans include a lunar lander and rover in the early 2030s, alongside the Korean Positioning System, a national navigation constellation budgeted at 3.7 trillion won ($2.56 billion) by 2035.

However, challenges regarding Seoul’s space program persist after its first commercial orbital rocket, Hanbit-Nano, crashed shortly after liftoff in December 2025 following repeated launch delays.

North Korea: space program as missile ‘by-product’

North Korea’s space program remains the most opaque.

“North Korea’s space program has developed primarily as a by-product of its ballistic missile program,” Boneitin said.

Since 1998, Pyongyang has attempted multiple satellite launches with limited success.

After two failures, it successfully launched its first military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, in 2023.

In 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to launch three additional reconnaissance satellites, but no further launches were reported.